Manchester synagogue attacker’s ex reveals his ‘extreme’ views and abuse

A woman who claims to have been in a four-month relationship with the man who attacked a synagogue in Manchester said he controlled and attacked her.

The woman has asked not to be named because she fears for her family who are still living in Greater Manchester.

She left England after the four-month on-off relationship with Jihad Al-Shamie, who she met on Muslim dating app Muzmatch.

The woman contacted the Manchester Evening News after she realised the perpetrator of the synagogue attack

Not only did she recognize him, she also recognized the black Kia Picanto he drove into pedestrians outside the synagogue – as he previously used the vehicle to stalk her after they broke up.

She said Al-Shamie would park up outside her home or workplace, near to where she’d get a taxi home after her shift.

‘He used to always get told to move because it’s a loading bay. He got tickets, on tickets, on tickets because of it, and he didn’t care,’ she said.

Al-Shamie allegedly lied about his age, saying he was 24 when she was 18 and still in college when they first met.

She only found out his real age – his mid-30s – when she found his ID, which he then tried to claim was fake.

They frequently met up in a Premier Inn because he lived with his mum and brother and ‘didn’t want her to be around his family’.

She also said he lied about his relationship history, saying he had no children when in fact he had three children and had previously been married to another woman.

The woman told the MEN: ‘He does have three kids and I just find it all quite sad, to be honest.’

Despite moving house and blocking his number, Al-Shamie still managed to track her down – leading to her eventually leaving the country to escape him.

Al-Shamie allegedly hit her on multiple occasions. On one occasion neighbors saw her running out of the house, and they called her a taxi.

She also said he continued to use the Muzmatch dating app during the course of their relationship, and would message ‘young girls’.

Despite being banned from the app multiple times, he continued to set up new accounts using fake names like ‘Valentino’ and ‘Ahmed’.

The woman grew up in a Muslim family with what she described as a ‘less conservative upbringing’ – but Al-Shamie would tell her she was ‘brought up the wrong way’.

She said: ‘He wanted me to cover myself, full niqab, everything. He was proper pressuring me for marriage – and I didn’t want to marry him.

‘This was after one month and he was like “come to my house”, and he was very forceful – extremely, really.

‘He used to say “I want you to be dedicated to the cause”, and he used to sit there and make me watch videos – like extreme videos – that I had no interest in.

‘I am Muslim and of course I love to learn more – but this stuff was things that I have been raised to not agree with.

‘He used to always say I was taught the wrong way and I wasn’t taught right. He was basically just trying to groom me into what he thought.

‘He used to say weird stuff. It was just insane. I can’t believe I stayed as long as I did.’

The woman said she never reported Al-Shamie to the police because she was scared of his potential retaliation.

Earlier this week, it emerged that the 35-year-old was on bail following an arrest for raping another woman at the time of the synagogue attack.

Two men – Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53 – both died during Thursday’s terror attack, while four others were injured. Al-Shamie was shot dead by armed police at the scene.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@usnewsrank.com.

For more stories like this, check our news page.