Independent TV
Showing now | On The Ground
09:29
The nightmare of trying to save our son Jack from Isis
The nightmare that unravelled the lives of Sally Lane and John Letts started with a single phone call more than 12 years ago. The British-Canadian parents had initially been relieved when their eldest son, Jack, showed a natural proficiency in Arabic.
Their introverted teenager, with an apologetic smile, had been struggling with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder at school in a quiet middle-class neighbourhood of Oxford. He converted to Islam and asked to spend part of his gap year studying Arabic in Kuwait.
Just a few weeks into the course, in August 2014, he called home. “Mum, I’m in Syria,” he said before the crackly line went dead.
For 12 years, Sally Lane and John Letts have been fighting to bring their son Jack – held in Isis prisons in Syria and Iraq – back home to Oxford. They tell the story of how their lives fell apart to chief international correspondent Bel Trew.
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