A mother who admitted she "made a mistake" taking her toddler son to Syria to join Islamic State was a vulnerable victim of domestic violence left isolated by events in her own troubled life.

Tareena Shakil was described as a highly intelligent young woman with eight GCSEs and three A levels, who ended up living in the heart of darkness in IS's de facto capital in northern Syria.

The 26-year-old was convicted after a two-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court in which she explained her decision to flee the UK for Syria in October 2014 as a bid to leave a troubled family life behind.

The jury heard of an unsettled childhood and how she became a victim of domestic violence whose husband left her and their young son for Yemen in the months before she went to the self-declared caliphate.

Her defence barrister, Tim Moloney QC, told jurors it was at that point she was "groomed" by IS recruiters through social media.

She went from being a quiet, thoughtful, unreligious woman to the young mother whose story landed her face on the front pages of national newspapers.

Shakil's own infamy even travelled as far as her adoptive home in Raqqa, where other IS recruits knew of her story.

It was a far cry from growing up in Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire - notable for its brewery industry - where she had once worked part-time jobs at Morrisons and New Look.

According to friends she showed little active interest in Middle East politics - she had once bought nappies for a Syrian refugee aid drive.

Close friend Ruksana Bibi said Shakil did "normal girly stuff" while another former colleague Sarah Swami described her as "fiercely loyal, head-strong - but in a good way and very family orientated".

Shakil took media studies, film studies and psychology at Burton College and went on to Wolverhampton University to do a degree in counselling psychology.

However, she had met her boyfriend on a night out clubbing on Birmingham's Broad Street and in 2011 they were married.

During her evidence to the trial, she spoke of the troubled relationship.

"Yes, there was violence," she said.

She added: "It was very much fuelled by alcohol and drink, pretty much straight away, after moving in together it deteriorated."

Shakil worked as a rehabilitation support worker in Hinckley, Leicestershire, where she helped patients with an acquired brain injury but quit after falling pregnant with her son.

Moving to her own home in Beechfield Road, Birmingham, the couple separated in April 2014, with her husband going to Yemen where he told her he wanted to start "a new life".

She said his move left her "broken".

"Because we've had a child together, I wouldn't want the father of my son saying he is starting a new life abandoning his son.

"I'd been through a lot with this man and for him to say 'I'm starting a new life' - what about my life? He left me broken."

Breaking down in the witness box - the only time she did so during her evidence - Shakil told jurors that episode left her feeling utterly "lost".

Just months later, fleeing her old life she would secretly cross the Turkish border into Syria and live in the IS capital of Raqqa.

In a message home to Ms Swami, who asked why she left, Shakil told her: "Because I hate people here (in the UK).

"I wanted to leave England."

Mr Moloney QC, defending Shakil at trial, told the jury: "This is someone who is isolated and that sense of isolation continues, throughout the messages to her family."

He said IS recruiters had lured the young woman "at a very vulnerable time of her life".

Closing the defence case, he concluded: "She's been groomed."