EVERY time Sally Evans spoke to her son on the phone she would tell him she loved him — only the last time, something was different.
“He said it like he really meant it. They were the last words I had with him,” The 57-year-old mother of two told news.com.au.
“He never did tell me what he was doing, it was only after his death that I found out exactly what he’d been doing. He would never talk about it.”
At 21, Thomas became the first white British person to join the radical terrorist organisation Al-Shabaab, the group behind the attack on Kenya’s Westgate Mall which killed 67 people and injured 175.
He converted to Islam at 19 and changed his name to Abdul Hakim before travelling to Egypt to learn Arabic. However after several weeks in the country, he left for Somalia via Ethiopia and Sudan where he trained with the militant group. Now a new documentary, My Son the Jihadi, documents the harrowing impact his disappearance had on those left behind.
The observational footage shows Sally and her other son Micheal, as they grapple with how their beloved son and brother transformed into a terrorist — a struggle made all the more bizarre by the juxtaposition of radicalism against everyday suburban life.
“He wasn’t brought up to be a monster. They’re not brought up to be what they become,” she said. “It’s a poison that is in society that can turn them into this, that can radicalize them and make them think they’re doing the right thing.”
The extraordinary film is the result of 16 months work by former The Australianjournalist and The Sunday Times security correspondent Richard Kerbaj who broke the story of Thomas’ involvement with Al-Shabaab after tracking Sally down via the electoral role.
He started visiting her on weekends with a handheld camera and convinced her to tell the family side of her son’s radicalisation. Working as producer on the film, Mr Kerbaj joined forces with executive producer Brian Woods and director Peter Beard to make the piece over nine months.
“It was so difficult to get the parents perspective on it because in most cases parents don’t want to speak,” Mr Kerbaj told news.com.au. “They feel a great sense of isolation, they’re embarrassed, they feel if they speak out the authorities might crack down on them or crack down on their children and they live in the hope their children will return.”
“She was the first mum in the UK to speak out about her son becoming a jihadist. Secular mum, white background, no cultural or religious reference points to Islam … she had no idea about this stuff.”
“This is such a special story because her voice is so unique … There is no PR sense to her she just speaks her mind.”
The fly-on-the-wall style captures surprisingly touching moments including Sally making contact with Sudea, the 14-year-old child bride of Thomas, and his mother who is now living in Sweden.
“We share the same thing that we’re both heartbroken by our children and their choices. And I’m really sorry for that,” Sally tells Sudea’s mother.
The film takes a tragic turn when Sally receives a late-night phone call saying Thomas has been killed in Kenya. An uncensored picture on Twitter shows his thin-frame sprawled on the ground after a gunbattle and leaves no doubt her son is dead.
“I didn’t imagine feeling so empty, so lost, so overwhelmingly sad,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do to make it any better. He’s gone … I’m hurt but I’m angry too, angry that he’s done that to himself.”
Months on from his death, Sally has faced up to atrocities Thomas committed in Africa and is working to raise awareness about radicalisation for families of the 1000 other Britons who are estimated to have joined terrorist groups so far.
For Mr Kerbaj, the story is crucial in stopping others travelling overseas by documenting the devastating impact it can have on families.
“It’s her frankness and her ability to convey her story so eloquently and so plainly,” he said.
“She’s very much the person you see on the screen, she’s all heart and she doesn’t necessarily need to sit there and think through everything, everything just flows out of her so naturally.”
“She still cries because she cries for Thomas, but she’s glad that Abdul Hakim, that convert he became, is dead because he can no longer hurt innocent people. That transformation is just so moving.”
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