Teenage teacher shared children’s book on jihad, court told

Opening her trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Gareth Weetman said the defendant had sought extremist books and videos between 2022 and 2023.

He said: “The defendant saw it as her duty to teach these extremist beliefs to young children.

“In order to do so, she obtained a place as a teacher at an Islamic Sunday school.”

Jurors heard “pro-Isis propaganda”  was uncovered by police after her phone was seized and the contents downloaded in October 2022.

Timaeva was arrested at her home in March 2023 and an examination of her devices made it clear she had been “deliberately seeking out extremist material”, Mr Weetman said.

Notes were found on her phone, including one dated July 2023 entitled “Permissibility of Suicidal Operations”, jurors heard.

Mr Weetman went on: “But an even greater concern was the discovery of information suggesting that the defendant wanted to teach children to hold these extremist views too.”

Police uncovered a document entitled the Little Muwahideen, with a colourful cartoon-style front cover designed for children, the court was told.

The book made reference to “fitna”, meaning strife, and included sections on waging war for Islam, it was alleged.

In September 2022, Timaeva had been making arrangements to teach a class of children at an Islamic faith school and made reference to the booklet in planned lessons, the court was told.

She sent an electronic copy of the book to a contact at the Tawheed Islamic Education Centre in Maidenhead and had 70 copies printed, it was claimed.

Mr Weetman said: “It follows that this clearly wasn’t a distant dream of the defendant to teach young children the extremist and intolerant notions in this book.

“She had printed it and arranged to attend the classes to do so.”

Jurors heard that the defendant had also wanted to gain access to children at the Windsor Muslim Association which, in March 2023, allegedly listed her as a teacher on its website.

Mr Weetman said that copies of the Little Muwahideen booklet were found in a search of the defendant’s home last March 2.

But it was clear that more copies had already been distributed by the defendant, Mr Weetman said.

In an email sent the day after her arrest, she said: “They took my little muwahideen booklets.

“All praise is to Allah that I gave out so many not long ago, they only found a few copies at my house.”

Meanwhile, a teacher at the defendant’s school found her alone in an office trying to hide shredded paper in the shelves of a cupboard, jurors were told.

These strips were pieced back together and found to be about jihad, Mr Weetman said.

Timaeva has denied four counts of dissemination of terrorist publications including “Little Muwahideen” and possessing a video for terrorist purposes entitled “Incite the Believers”.

The trial was adjourned until Thursday.