Linda Wenzel

Linda Wenzel is a German schoolgirl who ran away from home aged 15 to join the Islamic State. She left her home in Pulsnitz, Lower Saxony in the summer of 2016 with a note left behind claiming she would return in days. In reality, she caught a flight to Istanbul before heading through Syria and into Iraq. There, she joined and married a man who had groomed her via the Internet into converting to Islam and becoming an extremist. He was killed fighting for Islamic State five months later.

Wenzel was captured by Iraqi forces in Mosul aged 16 in 2017, and early the following year at the age of 17 was sentenced to five years for joining the terror group and a further year for illegal immigration. She had praised Anis Amri for his terror attack in Berlin and accused her mother of being responsible for her husband's death "because your taxes paid for the bombs here."

Wenzel was groomed by viewing videos of picturesque scenes and happy family units but found reality in war-torn Iraq very different. By the time of her capture she claimed to regret joining IS. She is speculated to have enforced strict dress codes on women walking the streets of Mosul. She was gifted in her schoolwork and popular before withdrawing as her extremist Islamic obsession grew.