LBC listener in tears as she defends Shamima Begum

An LBC listener broke down in tears as she defended Shamima Begum, saying the Isis bride was "forced" to go to Syria under "false pretences".

Rebecca from Edinburgh told Jess Phillips: "I'm absolutely appalled that people in this country can be so hateful and loathing against a young girl of 15".

The family of Begum have called on the Home Secretary to help bring the 19-year-old's newborn son back to the UK.

In a letter to Sajid Javid they said the boy should not "lose the privilege" of being raised here.

Begum is currently living in a Syrian refugee camp and now wants to return to Britain.

During an LBC phone-in, Rebecca began to cry down the phone to Phillips.

"I'm sorry to be so upset," she said.

"People don't care, that poor girl is broken, she's completely brainwashed."

After sympathising with the caller, Phillips responded: "Can you not see that people are really angry that she seems to think you can go off to Syria and whenever that fails that you can just hop along back to the UK?"

Still upset, Rebecca said: "Of course, for the first hour when this story broke I felt furious and didn't like what she said.

"But after about an hour of thinking about it, I felt more and more strongly.

"Today, I've seen further interviews with her, and she's just a shell, she's completely broken."

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