A Church of England minister has told a court how she begged her Muslim convert son not to go to Syria to just months before he was killed in battle there.

Rev Sue Boyce said her son Jake Petty, who was known as Abu Yaqoob Britani, told her of his plans only after he left his home in the summer of 2014.

Petty converted to Islam when he was 15 and moved to Egypt to study after finishing a degree at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Boyce said she had "no idea" he was planning to fight in Syria. He had called in late August 2014 to say he was on the Syrian border and would be entering the country as an aid worker. She said: "I was horrified. I just expressed 'Do not be so stupid, don't do it, don't go there.'"

HIs family later received an email entitled New Life, in which Petty said he wanted to be "free to practise Islam".

He wrote: "To live...in a proper Islamic state has been a dream of mine for a long time.

"I did not think I would see it in my lifetime, so I had to rush over here and join my brothers and sisters in Islam as quickly as possible."

He said he had been training to become a "soldier" but that "Nobody has brainwashed me or tricked me into this, I need to know how to defend myself because the whole world is uniting to destroy us."

"By now you would have realised what all this means; unfortunately I won't ever be coming back to the UK...I know none of this is easy for you and you [may] never forgive me but it's not my intention for you to worry [or] be sad.

"Yes the chances of me getting hurt here are high but I want you to know that in spending my days with the most kind, generous and loving people I've ever met and I have a peace and contentment in my heart that I could never dream of anywhere else."

She said that in the middle of December 2014 all communication ended.

Police visited the family 10 months later with video footage of a dead fighter from Syria and his identity was confirmed as her son.

Sue Boyce was giving evidence in the prosecution of Lorna Moore, 33, who is accused of failing to inform police her husband Sajid Aslam was poised to leave for Syria.

Jurors were told Petty was one of a group of young Muslims from Walsall who went to fight for ISIS between July and December 2014.