Authorities 'missed opportunities' to stop two teenage brothers from Brighton joining al-Qaeda in Syria

Authorities failed to stop the radicalisation of two teenage boys who were killed while fighting for al-Qaeda in Syria despite monitoring them for years, an investigation has found.

Abdullah Deghayes, 18, and his 17-year-old brother Jaffar were killed within months of each other in 2014 after joining Jabhat al-Nusra.

Their elder brother, Amer, is believed to remain in Syria, having told ITV news he would continue on the path of jihad “until I get killed”.

A serious case review published by the Brighton and Hove Local Safeguarding Children Board found there had been “no recognition” that the brothers and their three siblings were becoming vulnerable to radicalisation and exploitation, with a series of “missed opportunities” leading up to their disappearance.

Their family, which is originally from Libya but fled Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, had been known to local authorities in Brighton for decades over domestic abuse and as the victims of racist attacks.

The Deghayes brothers are the nephews of Omar Deghayes, who was imprisoned without charge at Guantanamo Bay between 2002 and 2007 after being arrested in Pakistan.

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Anti-Islamic graffiti was reported in the area in Brighton, where the brothers lived from 2007 onwards, including a 12-inch high daubing stating “Behead all Muslims” in 2009, and four years later far-right protesters gathered outside their home.

In 2010, the boys told staff at a youth club that they were being forced to wake up at 4.30am to study the Quran and whipped if their father “felt that they were not studying properly”, causing all five siblings to be put under child protection plans.

The scheme ended after their father left the UK in 2012 but the review found that Abdullah and his elder brother Amer were “spiralling out of control” and becoming embroiled in anti-social behaviour and crime – a pattern frequently seen among European jihadis.

After an arrest in 2012, Jaffar shouted at officers that they “would die as they did not follow Allah, that they would burn in hell on judgement day”, while his brother had claimed: “Allah will seek revenge for me.”

The review said that comments made by siblings to police officers “would not have been perceived at the time as particularly significant”, but radicalisation training has since improved.

The next year, one of their schools raised the alarm after hearing that some young people were converting to Islam and some had been paid by one of the brothers’ relatives to attend a gym behind a place of worship.

Teachers also reported anti-Semitic content on one of the boy’s phones, including comments on Israel, Palestinians and “how disgusting the Jews were”.

Another opportunity to intervene came in the same year after Jaffar was referred to a panel following an “emotional” comment he made about Americans after returning from Libya in the grip of its brutal civil war.

But the panel concluded Jaffar was “not at risk of being drawn into terror-related activities” and the brothers continued to be counselled by social workers.

No further information was obtained about activities at the gym, the report said, but added: “Both these instances were missed opportunities to learn more about the activities of the young people and to understand the links between young people in Brighton.

“Moreover, at that time there was little local or national knowledge or understanding of the risks to children from being exploited into radicalisation to go and fight in wars elsewhere in the world.”

In January 2014, the brothers left the UK and were initially said to be visiting relatives, before police discovered they had travelled to Turkey and onwards to join Amer and one of his friends in Syria.

“Local practitioners do not know how, when or why the siblings decided to travel to Syria,” the report concluded.

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“Whatever their motives for travel, the police understood that the boys died participating in the conflict in Syria.”

Following news of Abdullah’s death just days after his 18th birthday, their father told The Independent his son was “a martyr” who died “for a just cause”.

Abubaker Deghayes insisted the brothers had gone to Syria “of their own free will” and without their parents’ consent, adding: “The cause is to help those who are being bombed daily by Assad and killed by his bombings and air raids and soldiers for nothing except to ask for their freedom.

”I hope this was his intention, I hope he is rewarded and I hope he is in peace now.“

Graham Bartlett, independent chair of the safeguarding review, said the case had a “major impact” on local authorities’ understanding of the risks of exploitation through radicalisation for children.

“It is important to stress that this review has found that prior to the siblings travelling to Syria, the national intelligence and threat assessment did not suggest that people were going abroad to fight,” he added.

“Locally, professionals had not identified that the brothers were at risk of radicalisation or at risk of fighting overseas. There was and remains no evidence to indicate how they were radicalised.”

Mr Bartlett expressed hope that the review’s findings would help professionals dealing with children suffering trauma who may become vulnerable and “inform policies and practices elsewhere in the UK”.