27/11/2017 London News

That's all from the BBC News at One,

so it's goodbye from me.

On BBC One we now join the BBC's

news teams where you are.

Good afternoon and welcome

to BBC London News -

I'm Sonja Jessup.

First this lunchtime -

what causes a young woman

from Harrow to join

the so-called Islamic State?

Tania Georgelas was once married

to an American leader in IS.

She moved to Syria with him

and their children.

But she quickly decided

she wanted to leave.

She's been speaking

to Rickin Majithia

from the BBC's Asian Network.

My name is Tania Georgelas.

For a decade I was

an Islamic extremist.

My ex-husband became a leading

member of the Islamic State and now

I'm hoping to counter his ideology.

In the late 1990s, Tania went

to high school here in Harrow.

It's a middle-class,

diverse London suburb.

I grew up here myself,

and went to school just three

miles down the road.

I didn't know her at the time

but know many people who did.

They have all described her

as a pretty normal teenager.

They say that she sometimes had

boyfriends and played

truant from school.

She wasn't known to be

especially religious or even

politically engaged.

So when did it all change?

I turned to religion

in my life when I was 17.

I just wanted to change my identity.

I didn't want to be Tania

from Harrow any more.

I wanted to be someone pious,

someone that people

didn't call a tart.

So it gave me structure in my life

that I needed and helped me feel

like I belonged somewhere.

In her late teens and early 20s,

Tania mixed with various

radical groups in London.

They changed the way

she looked at the world.

Our minds were being

filled with these images,

terrible, disturbing images.

They would give examples of what

happened in Srebrenica and Bosnia.

We were made to feel this shared

sense of guilt because we're

a community and it was our duty

to do something.

And that something was jihad.

In 2003, she married

John Georgelas, an American

convert she had met online.

Over the next eight years,

they lived across the UK,

the US and the Middle East.

By the time they reached Syria

in 2013, Tania was pregnant

with their fourth child.

I stayed in abandoned

homes by ex-military.

The windows had been blown out

and every single night,

I had become accustomed

to hearing gunfire.

By this point, Tanya

said she had started

to question the life of Jihad.

She wanted to take

the children back to America.

After three weeks in Syria,

she pleaded with John

to let them escape.

He agreed.

There were bullets,

like snipers, on these towers,

shooting, and we could see

the bullets flying everywhere.

I remember putting my kids

through the barbed wire

and the Syrian refugees,

they were just guys,

they were helping us

as much as they could.

I put the stroller in and then John

passed me another baby.

It was so scary.

John remained in Syria

and went on to join

the so-called Islamic state.

Until earlier this year,

the group controlled vast

areas of Syria and Iraq,

where it implemented brutal rule

and killed thousands.

Tania says she hasn't heard

from John in over a year,

and doesn't know if he's

alive or dead.

The last thing he told me, the last

message, was that he apologises

for the wrong that he's done to me

and the children, and that

if I don't hear from him in six

months, it's most likely

because he's dead because he has

to fight, because the fight

is drawing closer to where he lives.

Tania now lives

in the United states.

Her children are looked

after by John's parents and seem

well adjusted to American life.

She says she's turned her back

on extremism in order

to use her experiences to deter

others from making

the same mistakes.

If you were to meet a woman

who was thinking about going down

the same path that you once took,

what would you say to her?

I would say, I lost my family,

I lost my home, I lost ten years

of my life that I should have been,

you know, working towards

an education and my career.

I have four children

who don't have a dad now.

Is this the situation

you want to be in?

Rickin Majithia with that report.

Surrey Police is investigating child

sex abuse at a residential

children's home in Woking over

a period of 30 years.

17 people have been arrested

or interviewed under caution.

Police say the allegations date back

to the 70s at a home

known at different times

as Kinton Approved School

and the Oaks Centre, Mayford.

The trial's begun of a man accused

of throwing acid at a young

woman in east London

on her 21st birthday.

Resham Khan had been out

celebrating with her cousin

Jameel Muhktar in June

when the substance was thrown

through their car window.

They suffered

life-changing injuries.

John Tomlinson faces charges

of causing grievous bodily harm

at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Two men who were questioned

by police over a fight

that sparked panic at Oxford Circus

on Friday have been

released without charge.

A number of people were injured,

with nine taken to hospital,

after people fled amid

reports of a shooting.

The men - aged 21 and 40 -

voluntarily went to a police

station over the weekend.

Charlie Raposo left

the UK at the age of 13

to follow his dream

of skiing at the Olympics.

Now 21, he's close to securing

a place in the Giant Slalom

at the 2018 Winter

Olympics in South Korea.

at the 2018 Winter

Olympics in South Korea

next February.

When he's back in the UK,

he calls Chelsea home,

and Sara Orchard caught up with him

at the Hemel Hempstead snow centre.

It's that time of year again.

It's that time of year again.

Ski Sunday is coming and so the 2018

Winter and whilst London might not

be famous for its mountainous ski

slope Charlie Raposo is thankful for

his family holidays in Switzerland

that have allowed him to get within

touching distance of histories.

It's

everything I've wanted since I was a

really young kid, the Olympics by me

up, people running fire me up, I

love watching it and actually being

able to do it, doesn't happen all

the time but when it does, it's

amazing. The index is where I want

to be.

And he's back in the UK he

calls Chelsea home but it he took a

calculated risk to get to the top of

the sport by moving to Vermont in

the USA to join a ski academy and

paid off. He is a three-time British

champion and this time the world

Junior Championships, he finished

sixth. The reigning giant slalom

champion is from the USA and as he

continues to collect points for the

Olympics in 2018, he hopes it will

normalise the skill of competing for

Team GB.

It doesn't seem like a race

I will be doing in two weeks' time,

I have to treated the same, you are

standing at the opening ceremony,

thousands of people there watching,

not specifically you but you as a

whole, the athletes, you get used to

it, I've done World Championships,

four world junior championships.

Charlie time in London is brief but

he's here he's training and feeds of

the city's energy.

I come back and

the first day I come back I am

walking to the gym, feeling the city

buzz around, watching these people

who have their own hustle and fight

going on, everyone is busy trying to

make their way in life and I get a

lot of energy from that.

The Winter

Olympics start on the 9th of

February.

I don't think there's any snow in

the weather forecast that I hear it

is going to get cold.

Let's get the weather now -

here's Kate Kinsella.

Slowly and surely, the conditions

improving, brighter weather this

afternoon, quite a bit of cloud

around but to try and starting to

feel colder. The brighter weather,

still some high cloud around, the

sunshine hazy, pretty breezy and

that's blowing through some showers.

They should last too long, you could

get one or a two. The temperature is

9 degrees, we started the day at 10

degrees, slowly the temperature

dropping as we head towards the end

of the day, cold moving from the

north, clearing the cloud. Lengthy

cure spells, breezy, keeping the

earth moving, unlikely to see too

much frost despite the temperature

dropping. A chilly but bright start

first thing on Tuesday, lots of

sunshine around, still a bit of a

breeze, through the afternoon a bit

more cloud moving in, again the

chance of a shower, feeling colder

tomorrow, 6-7dC as a maximum, this

cooling trend continuing. Still

breezy, still an north-westerly

wind, feeling cold especially as we

head to Thursday, temperatures

reaching single figures. Thank you.

Well, that's it from us

on the lunchtime team.

Victoria Hollins

will be here at 6.30

with our evening programme.

Bye bye.