ITV News names the two extremists in Jihadi John's British terror cell
The ISIS execution gang fronted by 'Jihadi John' contained two other British extremists who learned radical Islam together in the streets of west London, ITV News can reveal.
Mohammed Emwazi detained and beheaded a string of hostages in Syria as part of a gang of British killers known by their western captives as 'The Beatles' - John, Paul and Ringo.
Until now the identities of Emwazi's masked associates have not been known - but ITV News can now name them as Londoners Aine Davis and Alexe Kotey.
Muslim convert Kotey was a key recruiter for the terror group and helped radicalise young men in London before travelling to Syria.
Alongside Emwazi and Davis, a known Isis fighter who was been named in British courts, they formed a group of British hostage takers in Syria known by their victims as ‘The Beatles’.
An ITV News investigation has established that all three members of the cell became close friends in London - long before they travelled to Syria.
Kotey was born a member of the Greek orthodox church but converted to Islam in his teens.
He, Emwazi and Davis all attended London’s Al-Manaar mosque, where they were marginalised for extremist views.
In 2011, elders accused Kotey of attempting a “takeover”, after he demanded that British foreign policy was addressed at the pulpit.
But after they threw him out, he started to organise private meetings nearby to discuss his interpretation of Islam. Several extremists who have since travelled to Syria attended the lectures.
One of them was Davis, who can be revealed as the third member of the ISIS cell.
Davis, originally from Hammersmith, travelled to Syria to become an ISIS guard. He was detained by police in Turkey last year on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack. His wife, Amal El-Wahabi, was jailed in 2014 for funding terrorism.
It is unclear whether Kotey is still alive. It has been reported that he was killed in a summer offensive against IS forces.
Emwazi was the first of the group to be identified after he appeared in a string of gruesome Isis videos beheading hostages including Britons David Haines and Alan Henning.
The masked executioner was killed in a US drone missile strike in Raqqa last November.