AS Andrew Drury made his way through a Syrian camp looking for notorious ISIS bride Shamima Begum, his mind began to race.
Although the intrepid filmmaker had been in far more perilous situations – his nerves started to get the better of him.
But when he was introduced to – who left the UK aged 15 to join a decade ago in 2015 – he was taken aback.
“She was very shaky, very nervous, very shut, emotional, tearful,”; Andrew told The Sun.
Father-of-four Andrew met Begum, who grew up in East London, for the first of six times at the in in June 2021 while filming for a documentary, Danger Zone.
He initially felt sorry for Begum, then 21, and became a close confidant of the Jihadi bride – even securing a for .
In less than two years his view of Begum – accused of serving in the feared IS “morality police”; and helping make suicide vests – completely changed, however.
He saw a colder side when she talked about how the death of her three children no longer upset her and even expressed support of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi.
Extreme adventurer Andrew, who has made treacherous journeys to and , said at first Begum was a “thin, ill-looking, sad character”; who was “very apologetic”;.
“We took a long walk around the camp, She started to relax, and she said she used to take this regular walk right around the perimeter of the camp to clear her head,”; he said.
“After the interview finished, we walked back to the room. Normally she’d go off to a tent, but she wanted to come back to the room to get a cold drink.
“Then I didn’t want to insult her at that point, I wanted to say goodbye – I thought I’d never see her again.
“I said, ‘Can I shake your hand?’ and she asked for a hug.
“So she gave me a hug and started to cry.”;
Andrew, from , said he felt they had formed a connection and believed she regretted turning her back on Western society to join the murderous death cult.
“At that point I kind of believed that she was sincere,”; he said.
I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it
Andrew Drury
“I kind of felt sorry for her. I thought at that point she’d been radicalised online, sent out as a prescribed bridge to somebody.
“She said she’d made a real bad mistake and really regretted what she’d done.
“She owned up to being this person that everybody hates in the UK.
“And I felt sorry for her, I’ve got young daughters, not a lot of difference in age, so I thought people do make mistakes, and I should give her a chance.”;
Andrew – whose book Trip Hazard details his experience in dangerous areas – returned to the camp months later after GMB asked for his help to get an interview with Begum.
The author, who has exchanged hundreds of messages with Begum, said he noticed a “subtle change”; in the former Brit.
Begum, who was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019, appeared to have undergone a more “Western”; makeover – ditching her hijab and abaya.
“She had changed as a character,”; Andrew said.
“She was more short. She wasn’t this nervous-cry sort of character.
“She looked assured, and she didn’t seem such a waif character, and she seemed to be in control of herself and her emotions.”;
Andrew told how Begum spent the night before the live interview “rehearsing”; with three of her friends In the camp, which is controlled by armed guards.
He added: “Her friends said they’d had their music playing and they were tutoring Shamima what to say.
“They seemed pretty together about what she should say, and they were schooling her.”;
Begum married an IS fighter soon after arriving in Syria and went on to have three children, none of whom survived.
Andrew – who said he had formed a “bond”; with Begum – told how after the interview, Shamima opened her purse and showed him photos of her children.
The tragic loss of his own brother Robert as a child made him sympathise with Shamima’s plight.
“One of them was a scene where the child must have been eight, nine months old, had chocolate around his face,”; he recalled.
“I said, ‘What’s that?’ and she said, ‘Oh we used to like baking cakes’.
“And it actually makes me quite sad. It was really quite sad knowing the child had died.
“She made it sound like an honour that she had shared these pictures with me, which I guess it probably was, because she hadn’t shared them before she said.”;
But it was Begum’s attitude after Andrew returned to the UK that shocked him – and began to shatter their relationship.
“I said to her, ‘Those pictures you showed me really upset me, I hope you’re okay’,”; he said.
“She messaged back and said, ‘Oh, they don’t bother me anymore. That doesn’t make me sad’.
“I thought, was that because she’s been traumatised so badly?
“But I think she is that hard. I think she’s calculated.
“I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it.”;
After meeting Andrew a couple of times, Begum started asking him to bring stuff into the camp for her – including clothes.
The dad said he felt “at a crossroads”; about whether to take what she wanted.
“I felt bad and guilty that I’d be taking somebody that carried out what could have been some atrocities, clothes,”; he said.
“But then, probably on the soft side of me, and the fact is, she was a young girl, so I was playing with these emotions, but I took her the clothes from Primark.
“We had a bundle of stuff, we took some toys for the children because it’s not their fault.”;
But then Begum’s requests started turning into demands, Andrew said.
“The messages continued,”; he added.
“This time they became slightly more angry, slightly more direct.”;
Before he planned to return to Syria again, Begum told him she wanted two books – Guantanamo Bay Diaries and Sea Prayer – which is inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis.
Andrew said she was also being schooled by her lawyer about her media presence.
He added: “What she declared by then is that she was hostage in a prison camp – where they were legally held.
“That’s how she started to see herself. All apologies had gone.
“She’d done a documentary with the BBC and was on the front of The Times magazine.
“She’d become a celebrity and was loving all the attention. She’d read all the newspaper articles.”;
Andrew – who returned to the camp with a friend and no crew – took some clothes for Begum with him.
I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive
Andrew Drury
But it was his decision not to take the books she had demanded that revealed her true colours.
“I did go back again, but my feelings were already changing towards her,”; Andrew said.
“It was a little boy’s birthday, and I felt so sorry for him.
“He wanted a Superman outfit, so I would have gone just for that, because I spend a lot of time in refugee camps. It’s not fair for these kids.
“I didn’t take the books Shamima wanted because I didn’t want to. I didn’t want her to have that opportunity to what I saw as studying how to be a victim.
“She opened the clothes, said she didn’t like them. I mean, this is a girl in a prison camp.
“She said, ‘I didn’t really care about the clothes, it was the books I wanted’. So she became quite aggressive in her nature.”;
Begum’s attitude then worsened when Andrew became interested in another girl’s story.
It was one of the final nails in the coffin in the bond Andrew believed they had initially formed.
“Shamima had a tantrum that the attention had been taken away from her,”; he said.
“She was like a child that was pretending they were ill.
“So during this period of time I was beginning to feel like the connection was gone.
“It was broken, and I was beginning not to like her.
“I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive.
“I had found out from other girls what she was accused of, and they told me the same thing that I had heard before, like sewing suicide vests
“Things were ringing in my head like she said early on that the Manchester bombing was legitimate because of what happened in Iraq and Syria.
“So I didn’t trust her.”;
Andrew’s last contact with Begum was around two years ago in a fiery text exchange.
She accused Andrew of “selling her out”;, to which he shot back: “You’ve sold your country out.”;
Begum last year lost her final appeal challenging the removal of her British citizenship.
She can now no longer fight to overturn the revocation of her citizenship within the UK legal system.
Andrew said: “I think she’s a danger for what she stood for, and I don’t think she could ever come back.
“I think she needs to go on trial in Syria for the crimes she committed against the Syrian people.”;
