'Jihadi Jack' interview: Homesick Jack Letts tells ITV News he wants to return from Syria but 'no one cares' about him
Video report by ITV News Security Editor Rohit Kachroo
The Briton known as Jihadi Jack has exclusively told ITV News he wants to come home after being held for two years in a Kurdish prison - but doubts the UK will move to bring him back.
Oxford-born Jack Letts, who was nicknamed Jihadi Jack by media after running away to Syria in 2014, said he was missing his mum and the home comforts of British life, including pasties and episodes of Doctor Who.
The British-Canadian spoke to ITV News Security Editor Rohit Kachroo from his prison in Syria, where he has been held after being charged by the YPG with being a member of Isis.
"If the UK accepted me then I’d go back to the UK, it’s my home. But I don’t think that’s going to happen," he said in the wide-ranging interview.
Letts, who holds dual nationality through his Canadian father John Letts and British mother Sally Lane, said he hadn't spoken to his parents in two years and doubted officials from either nation will "come and help me" because "no one really cares".
His parents face a trial in the UK over claims they funded terrorism by sending their son money. The couple deny the charge and insist their son went to Syria to help refugees.
ITV News cannot refer to any matters relating to the legal proceedings.
Letts, 23, willingly showed Kachroo his scars as he described how he reached Syria five years ago after dropping out of school aged 18.
He said he learned Arabic in Jordan before moving on to Kuwait and then eventually Iraq and Syria, ending up living on "the Oxford Street of Raqqa" and marrying an Iraqi woman, who has since given birth to his son.
Letts admitted his experience in Raqqa at one point left him welcoming 2015's Paris attacks after seeing children killed at first hand by coalition jet bombing raids.
"To be honest at the time I thought it was a good thing," he told ITV News, when asked about his reaction to the terror attacks that left 130 dead in the French capital.
"Genuinely, at the time, we had this idea that when you're living in Raqqa getting bombed every five minutes by coalition jets and you see literally, I've seen children burnt alive."
Addressing the Bataclan concert victims he said: "At the time, you have this sort of - and this is what war does to you - you have this idea of 'why shouldn't it happen to them?'
"But then I realised, they have nothing to do with it."
Letts, who was arrested en route to Turkey as he tried to leave Syria, said censored letters from his family - delivered by the Red Cross - were his only contact to his homeland.
Asked what he missed about the life he left behind Britain, he said: "I miss people mostly. I miss my mum. I know that sounds a bit toddler-ish."
He went on: "Even if I could just see my mum - I would like just a phone call, I don't know if Britain can do that for me here, but I'd like just a phone call to my mum - it’s been two years.
"If I could make a request. I'm probably not in a position to make requests. That’s it all, really. I miss my mum.
"What else do I miss? I miss pasties. It's not really English - sort of Scottish isn’t it? I miss pasties. And Doctor Who. Sounds a bit stupid… that’s all."
Kachroo spoke to Letts two days after interviewing IS runaway bride Shamima Begum in a Kurdish-controlled camp in Syria.
The former London schoolgirl, after learning from ITV News she has been stripped of her British citizenship, is appealing to return to the UK with her newborn son.
Letts, who has still never seen his own son and remains unaware of his wife's location, said he hoped nations will work to bring those held in the Kurdish camps home, with women and children the priority.
"The women who are in the camps, there's kids who die in the camps," he said.
"If I have to stay here two more years - I'm not trying to make myself seem like some sort of hero - if I have to stay here for two more years and they have to take back the women in the camps, I don't mind.
"But it feels a bit ridiculous now - if my request is anything, is that they change this policy, they do something here."
He remained pessimistic of his chances of being brought back to Britain or taken in by Canada.
"I don’t think I’m going to be given ... back to Britain, for example ... or some Canadian official is going to come and help me because like I said - no one really cares," he said.
He said he was "supposedly" a dual national, adding: "I did at one point in my life have a Canadian passport, I don’t know if it’s still valid."
Asked if he felt British or Canadian, he said: "I feel British. I’m British. My dad's Canadian.
"If the UK accepted me then I’d go back to the UK, it’s my home. But I don’t think that’s going to happen."
He said he has approached both British and Canadian officials but has not received a reply.
Asked about Letts' situation, a Home Office spokesperson said: "In recent days the Home Secretary has clearly stated that his priority is the safety and security of Britain and the people who live here.
"In order to protect this country, he has the power to deprive someone of their British citizenship where it would not render them stateless.
"We do not comment on individual cases, but any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly."
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