Briton shot himself to avoid capture by Isil

THE MOTHER of a Briton who died fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria became suspicious of his whereabouts because it was unusual for him to have tidied his room, an inquest heard.

Ryan Lock, 20, from Chichester, West Sussex, killed himself to avoid falling hostage to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militants, a coroner heard. His mother, Catherine Lock, told the inquest how her son had given few clues about his intentions to fight Isil.

But she said that one of the things that “set off alarm bells” was the fact he had cleaned his room before he left. Recording a narrative verdict, Portsmouth and South East Hampshire coroner David Horsley said Mr Lock died a hero fighting Isil in the city of Raqqa. The former chef joined the Kurdish militia with no experience as a soldier after telling his family he was backpacking in Turkey.

Mr Horsley said: “He used his own weapon to avoid capture. That can only be viewed as a brave action.”

Ryan Lock ‘died a hero’, the inquest into his death was told. He used his own gun on himself when Isil fighters closed in