Tareena Shakil travelled to Syria with her young son and was found guilty of encouraging acts of terror on social media

A British mother who took her young son to Syria is beginning a six-year jail sentence after a judge concluded she had “embraced” Islamic State and was prepared to let her child become an Isis fighter.

Tareena Shakil, 26, claimed she had been groomed by members of Isis and escaped back to the UK after realising she had made a terrible mistake by travelling to its stronghold in Raqqa.

Sentencing her at Birmingham crown court, the judge Melbourne Inman made it clear he held reservations about her version of events. “You told lie after lie to the police and in court,” he said.

The judge, the recorder of Birmingham, was particularly critical of Shakil’s decision to take her child to Syria and allow him to be photographed in clothing bearing an Isis logo and with an assault rifle.

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“Most alarming is the fact that you took your son and how he was used,” he said. “ The most abhorrent photographs were those taken of your son wearing a balaclava with an Isis logo and specifically the photograph of your son, no more than a toddler, standing next to an AK47 under a title which, translated from the Arabic, means ‘Father of the British jihad’.”

The judge added: “You were well aware that the future which you had subjected your son to was very likely to be indoctrination and thereafter life as a terrorist fighter.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tareena Shakil, in a photo retrieved from her phone, wears a balaclava with the Islamic State logo Photograph: PA

Jailing her for four years for her Isis membership and two years for encouraging acts of terror in messages she sent via social media, the judge said she would be entitled to release on licence after the halfway point.

An order of the court made under section 47 of the Counter Terrorism Act means that, as a convicted terrorist, Shakil must notify police of her personal details including her home address for 15 years after her release.

Shakil was radicalised on the internet and travelled to Syria via Turkey in October 2014 after telling friends and family she was off on a beach holiday. She spent more than two months living in a mansion with women of various nationalities waiting to be matched up with fighters, and while there sent messages and pictures glorifying Isis.

Shakil left Syria in January 2015 and arrived back in the UK the following month. She initially told police she had been kidnapped. In the witness box she gave an extraordinary account of her time in Raqqa and claimed she managed to escape after becoming disillusioned and frightened, running across the border with her young son.

Shakil said she had been groomed by Isis recruiters who had targeted her when she was low because of the breakup of her marriage in the UK. She said her every move had been monitored by Isis minders and she had no choice but to send the messages and pictures supportive of the group.

Following her conviction, her father, Mohammed Shakil, claimed she would appeal against her conviction. He told ITV News: “It was a mistake ... [She is] the perfect daughter, the daughter who never went out nightclubbing and never went out doing this or going there, who kept herself busy in studies, and who wanted to be somebody in life and have an important role. That’s who she wanted to be: a somebody, not a nobody.”

The judge said it may never be known what happened in Raqqa, but he believed that Shakil had been prepared to become the bride of an Isis fighter. He dismissed her claim that before she went to Syria she had not known of the atrocities Isis has committed.

“You told lie after lie to the police and in court … including that you were kidnapped, were not responsible for any tweets and any incriminating photographs were staged against your will,” he said.

The judge told Shakil it was clear she had been radicalised following online conversations with prominent members of the terrorist group. He mentioned by name a man called Fabio Pocas, who is believed to be an Isis member of Portuguese descent.

“You embraced Isis, you sent messages on the day of your arrival in Syria that you were not coming back and by 28 October you were sending a message to your brother-in-law that it was part of your faith to kill the murtadeen [apostates] and on 9 December you told your father you wanted to die a martyr.”

Shakil had also encouraged other women to join her in Raqqa. The judge said: “Your role as a woman in Isis was different to that of a man but you embraced it and were willing to support those in Raqqa, and potentially those outside, to come and play their role in providing fighters of the future and were willing, shamelessly, to allow your son to be photographed in terms that could only be taken as a fighter of the future.”

However, the judge did accept that Shakil had returned after having a “change of heart” – which he said was in her favour.

Shakil, who is from Burton-upon-Trent but was living in Birmingham before she left for Syria, was one of about 60 British women believed to have left to join Isis in Syria. They were said to have been among 600 women from Europe, North America and Australia in Syria.