Accused of Funding Terrorism to the Tune of £150
Imagine being woken in the early hours of the morning to a frantic banging on your front door. Moments later, you’re handcuffed on the floor of your own home, multiple guns trained at your head. Before long, you’re detained at an anti-terrorism unit and will remain there for three days. Your career will be ruined, your teenage son will be arrested too. Then you’ll both be ordered to appear at the highest court in the land on suspicion of financing terrorism. You face the prospect of a prison sentence and being branded a terrorist, or perhaps just financial ruin.
That’s what happened to Paul Newey, 49, of Solihull in the West Midlands because he sent his eldest son £150 to tide him over for a few days until his next pay cheque came through.
“It’s an absolute nightmare,” said Newey, back in April as he awaited a court date at the Old Bailey, the highest court in the land. “I’ve done nothing wrong. I can’t believe what’s happened.”
This week, the case was thrown out and charges originally brought against Newey in November were dropped. Now, however, Newey faces a battle to rebuild his life, he and his family having endured a traumatic past six months.
In 2017, Newey’s son Daniel, then 26, joined the YPG, a Kurdish People’s Protection Unit that fought beside British and American allied forces to defeat ISIS in northern Syria. Having spent a few months back home in the UK last year, Daniel decided to return to Syria, unbeknown to his father. While en route, in Barcelona, he requested the loan via a text.
“I thought the money was to buy drinks, not to buy rocket launchers,” said Newey, who was subsequently charged with financing terrorism. “And it was only £150!”
Newey’s predicament arose because UK home secretary Sajid David ruled around the time of Daniel’s second visit to Syria that traveling to such regions can be punishable by a 10-year jail sentence under a new anti-terror law. Those considered to have aided and abetted can also be prosecuted. Daniel and the YPG became engaged against Turkish troops that Newey claims included disguised ISIS fighters, their aim being to cleanse the region of Kurds.
“The Turkish defence minister and the Turkish prime minister mentioned me by name and said I should go to prison!” said a bemused Newey. “I love Turkey. I’ve been on holiday there four times. I love the place. I can’t go again! I’m like public enemy number one. It’s funny but it’s not. The lads down the pub call me Jihadi Paul.”
So, how did an average man from suburban Birmingham and his family find themselves facing terrorism charges? Newey’s other two sons and former wife have also been questioned and had electronic goods including computers and mobile phones confiscated, along with their passports.
“Daniel had seen something on the telly, ISIS fighters killing people, and then he split up with his girlfriend of eight years and lost his job and that tipped him over the edge, I think,” explained Newey. “They don’t just send you a ticket. You have to show a bit of interest for the YPG and the history of the Kurds and then they get you over there.
“So, from talking to them over the internet he ended up going to Syria and fighting ISIS for months. He came back because they’d killed most of the ISIS fighters. He was front line virtually for the whole eighteen months he was there. He was one of the forward troops, like a ranger would be, fighting in daily contact with ISIS fighters, hand to hand sort of thing.
“He was trained by the SAS. When they had prisoners of war, they gave them to the (allied forces) and they gave them rocket launchers (in return). He was calling in air strikes, so they’ve been backed by the Americans and the British. They’re a proper army. I know it’s a militia, but they’ve got codes of conduct and he fights with men and women. Some of the things he said ISIS are doing is setting fire to people and torturing people and getting women and cutting their breasts off. He’s with loads of Americans. Loads of Britons are there with them. Some soldiers would come on their downtime and fight with the YPG. They’re not getting paid.”
Upon returning to the UK last year, Daniel’s freedom-fighting escapades to help defeat ISIS were met by anything but a hero’s welcome. He was arrested but not charged, and when he was unable to secure a job due to the alleged terrorism charges stamped on his record, Paul gave him shelter and found him employment through a friend.
Newey added: “He came back and got arrested by the police. They couldn’t do nothing because he hasn’t broken any laws. They raided his Mom’s house, where there were six of them who had all their phones taken off them. My sixteen-year-old lad had his computer taken.
“A month before Daniel went back to Syria, the police phoned him up out of the blue and said: ‘You can have your passport back now.’ But nobody else has had anything back. It’s like they were saying: ‘go back, go and have a go.’”
In November 2019, Newey transferred two amounts, one for £50 and another for £100, to Daniel’s bank account at his son’s request.
“He sent me a text saying: ‘Can I borrow some money’ and I said: ‘Yeah pay me back, blah, blah, blah’ because his wages were going into the bank on the Friday. I work shifts all the time and he was working shifts too, so I could go two weeks without seeing him. I assumed he was still at home.
“My youngest lad said to me: ‘Oh I think he’s gone back,’ but he never told me. But he wasn’t in Syria, so I never sent him any money to him in Syria. He was in Barcelona. The police have said that. So, where was the funding of terrorism?”
Then, out of the blue, came Newey’s arrest.
“I thought maybe they’d come looking for Daniel again,” explained Newey, whose son had been questioned by police multiple times while home between tours in Syria. “But they said: ‘We arrest you under the terrorism act’ and I still thought: ‘Ah, whatever!’ They’d done that much of a (poor) surveillance job, they didn’t even know I’d got a garage to the flat, they didn’t know my youngest son Sam would be there.
“They took me to a proper terrorism unit in Willenhall and then two women — I think one was MI6 and one was from the anti-terrorism unit — questioned me every couple of hours. I said: ‘Look I’ve got nothing to hide. I’ve sent 150 quid. Wow!’ And they’re going through every text message I’ve sent to Daniel (asking): ‘Well when did you know this, when did you know that?’
“I said: ‘What does it matter? He’s not a terrorist. If he’s a terrorist, why have you given him his passport back a month ago? Why have you facilitated him going? Why, if he’s shown his passport at all the ports, has he been allowed to go into these countries? You know where he is, just go on his Instagram.’”
Newey’s lack of concern at his own predicament began to wane when the line of questioning continued for an extended period and then his world came crashing down. He lost his job and another son Sam, 19, who is high-functioning autistic, was arrested having filled in a form online on Daniel’s behalf. Spiralling legal costs increased by £2,000 per month and having recently beaten cancer, Newey’s health is suffering.
“They kept me in for three days and I had to get a chief inspector to bail me over,” he said. “I applied for legal aid. They don’t allow you much money to live on and they sent me bailiff’s letters. I work for an engineering firm. It’s absolutely ruining my career. I can’t go for any internal jobs or jobs anywhere else. I’m in a holding pattern for absolutely nothing.
“I’m on four amitriptyline and eight co-codamol just to get through the day and I have to take other antacids as well, so my health isn’t the best. Then there’s them nicking Sam and obviously Dan is in a war zone now being shot at. It’s all very stressful. My Dad’s ill as well. He’s 78 and he’s had a stroke and he’s living on his own and has to have carers in four times a day. It’s a nightmare for him as well.”
Newey expected to have his day in court and put trust in a jury to acquit him for sending £150 to his son as part of a larger case, which was subsequently thrown out, leading to charges against him being dropped.
He explained: “The CPS were going to put mine, Sam’s, this Daniel Burke — the chap that drove Daniel to Spain, who is a decorated paratrooper — and his girlfriend’s case together. I know they were trying to say the circumstances are the same, but I’ve never met the other two people. I don’t know who they are. Daniel never mentioned them because I didn’t really want him to talk about it. I wanted him to normalize himself. Now they’re no longer being charged and neither am I.
“I sat next to the head of the terrorism unit at the London magistrates court and I said: ‘This is a right load of bollocks.’ The YPG people were screaming at him calling him (expletive) scum and a saying he’s disgrace, and I don’t really want to be involved in all that.
“If I did get found guilty, it would ruin my career because I’d be a convicted terrorist, and nobody would give me a job.”
And then there’s Paul’s son Daniel, who he accepts he might never see again.
“He’s said he’s not coming back to go to prison for ten years or something,” said Newey. “He says he’s going to fight to the death. Now I’m just waiting for the call.
“Why does he want to be here when he can’t live a normal life? When is it ever going to end? He’s been shot, in the chest. He came back here to normalize his life and probably has some PTSD, and the police bullied him into going back again. They should have tried to help the kid.
“Daniel went to the (unemployment) office in Sparkbrook and people refused to serve him. He came up as a terrorist. He’s been ostracized. Can’t get a job, can’t sign on. That’s why he got so embittered.
“Some people have said: ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have got involved’ but I thought I was doing the right thing helping him when he needed some money. I wasn’t giving him money to buy guns, I was giving him money to live.”
Now, finally, after a harrowing eight months, the threat of a conviction no longer hangs over the heads of Paul and Sam Newey.
