Sunday Sport

DID BANG ON HEAD TURN JIHADI JOHN INTO A NUTCASE?

Schoolpals say wanted killer was ‘never the same’ after accident

- By BRAD CHADWICK news@ sundayspor­t. co. uk

ISIS butcher Jihadi John became a coldbloode­d killer after a serious brain injury caused by running headlong into a metal goalpost, a former classmate has claimed.

The executione­r – this week unmasked as Londoner Mohammed Emwazi – was known as a quiet, studious schoolboy until the whack on the noggin transforme­d him into a Jew- hating psycho.

While some former pals say they are struggling to believe the boy they knew turned into one of the world’s most notorious killers, others have spoken of a boy with extreme beliefs and a thirst for blood.

The Islamic State killer was born in Kuwait before moving to Britain aged six. He appeared to embrace British life – playing football in the affluent streets of west London while supporting Manchester United.

But a former classmate at St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school in Maida Vale, told LBC radio: “We were in the playground and Mohammed was running away from someone. I think he was just about to get into a fight.

“As he was running, a guy blocked his path and he ran into a metal goalpost, hit his head and fell to the floor.

“This was Year 6 – we didn’t see him for six weeks. He was not the same ever since that brain injury. I am telling you one million per cent. He was not the same.”

A former friend of the terrorist, who met him in 1999 when they were both at Quintin Kynaston Community Academy in St John’s Wood, North London, said he found out Emwazi was a Nazi sympathise­r during a Year 9 lesson.

The 27- year- old told the Daily Mirror: “The teacher told us Hitler drew up plans to get rid of all the Jews. I heard Mohammed mutter ‘ Good, they deserved it’.

“I thought he was joking but later he told me that he hated all Jews and blamed them for the plight of Muslims.”

The school friend said that if they ever walked past a house in Golders Green that Emwazi knew was owned by a Jew, he’d shout obscenitie­s such as “f** king pigs”.

Experts agree some symptoms of brain injury can only become apparent years after the event. KILL JIHADI JOHN AND WIN A FERRARI

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Emwazi and ( right) another Jew- hater
HEAD CASES: Sick killer Emwazi and ( right) another Jew- hater
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