Manchester terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie was married to at least three women simultaneously whilst leading a complex double life of manipulation and extremism before carrying out last week’s deadly synagogue attack, it has been revealed.
The 35-year-old used Muslim dating app Muzz, previously known as Muzmatch, to message a litany of women under the alias “J”, claiming he was a data analyst of “Syrian mixed heritage” whilst concealing his increasingly chaotic personal life and radical views.
The former RAC call handler told his secret second wife that she was “the only woman I want”, only for her to later discover he was still married to his first wife, Ikra Sulehman, with whom he had two young children aged one and three.
Zoom Wedding During Lockdown Lasted “10 to 15 Minutes”
Al-Shamie married his second wife during a lockdown Zoom call in a ceremony that lasted “10 to 15 minutes”, according to explosive new revelations about the terrorist’s tangled personal life. Their relationship was doomed from the start, however, as she repeatedly asked for a divorce, but he dismissed her pleas as merely a “natural” emotional reaction.
He met his second wife on the Muzz app in 2021, before marrying a third woman, 35-year-old NHS worker Elizabeth Davis, who has five children from previous relationships. Davis, a white British woman who converted to Islam four years ago, worked as a mental health nurse at a Manchester hospital.
The second wife has now broken her silence about Al-Shamie’s “intimidating” and “aggressive” nature, as well as his obsession with foreign TV news channels. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, she revealed the terrorist’s volatile temperament and controlling behaviour during their turbulent three-year relationship.
“One minute he can talk nice, then it’s like flipping a switch,” the woman said, describing how Al-Shamie would turn up at her home uninvited, demanding to know her whereabouts. She is now assisting counter-terror police in their efforts to probe his background following the attack that left two dead and three seriously injured.
“I’m Crazy About You” – Terrorist’s Love Messages Exposed
When they first met, Al-Shamie seemed like a “nice, genuine, normal” person, his second wife revealed. “But then he would be like, ‘I’m outside yours, where are you?’ – turning up whenever he felt like it,” she told investigators.
The terrorist used to “slate” her, the woman claimed, saying no man would want to be with her because of her “baggage”. She spoke out about enduring a “rollercoaster” on-off long-distance relationship in which Al-Shamie lied about his intentions to move closer and have children with her.
In a voice note obtained by authorities, Al-Shamie told her: “I miss you a lot, I’m crazy about you. I can’t stop thinking about you. You’re the only woman that I want in my life; you’re the only woman that’s ever made me feel like this before. The only woman that I have a connection like this with.”
Text messages seen by The Guardian show Al-Shamie refusing her request for a divorce when she discovered he had children with another woman at his home in Manchester. “I can do better… don’t need someone with your baggage,” he wrote in one message, adding: “I’ve already taken u back as my wife u don’t get to just dissappear [sic] and block me [it] doesn’t work like that.”
Glued to Phone Watching Foreign News But “Never Spoke About Gaza”
Al-Shamie was said to be addicted to foreign news channels but never spoke about the situation in Gaza, according to his second wife’s testimony. “He was glued to his phone watching the news,” she told the Mail. “He was just big on going to the mosque and praying.”
The terrorist was also fixated on self-care, insisting she avoid “nasty” Red Bull and instead drink only water. He encouraged her to read the Qur’an and pray with him, later refusing her repeated requests for a divorce.
She spoke of her shock at Thursday’s horror attack in Manchester, saying her first thought was: “Why? I’ve let you in my home, I’ve given you my time, you’ve harassed me for years, you married me and wouldn’t divorce me, so I’m technically married to him to this day.”
NHS Worker Wife “Drastically Changed” After Converting to Islam
The terrorist’s third wife, Elizabeth Davis, underwent a dramatic transformation after converting to Islam four years ago, according to sources close to the family. A source told The Sun that the 46-year-old NHS mental health worker “stopped communicating with relatives and friends… It was like she had been brainwashed.”
Neighbours in Farnworth, Bolton, described hearing “screams and shouts” as her home was raided by dozens of armed officers and uniformed police on Friday night following the synagogue attack. Davis, who worked at a Manchester hospital, had married Al-Shamie in a secret Islamic ceremony whilst he was still married to his first wife.
The collapse of Al-Shamie’s first marriage occurred approximately six months before the attack, after his wife discovered his secret wedding to the NHS nurse. He had been living with his first wife, a British Pakistani woman, and their young child in Prestwich before their separation.
“Was He This Terrorist All Along?”
“I wouldn’t say he had the mindset of being a terrorist, personally, from what I knew of him,” his second wife reflected. “But at the same time, how aggressive he was, how manipulative he was, was he this terrorist all along, or was he crying out for help? Who knows?”
The terrorist claimed responsibility for his act in a 999 call after driving at people in his car outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Crumpsall, Manchester, last Thursday morning. Jewish worshippers were attending the place of worship for the holy day of Yom Kippur, Judaism’s most sacred day of atonement and reflection.
He then carried out a frenzied knife attack whilst trying to storm the synagogue, wearing a fake suicide belt, before being shot dead by Greater Manchester Police firearms officers within seven minutes of the first emergency call.
Victims Named as Community Heroes
Melvin Cravitz, a 66-year-old father of three, was killed in the attack, along with 53-year-old Adrian Daulby. Daulby is believed to have been inadvertently shot by police as he ran to block the synagogue doors to stop Al-Shamie from getting inside, with Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson confirming that one victim appeared to have suffered a gunshot wound.
“The only shots fired were from GMP’s Authorised Firearms Officers as they worked to prevent the offender from entering the synagogue and causing further harm to our Jewish community,” Watson stated. “This injury may sadly have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence of the urgently required action taken by my officers to bring this vicious attack to an end.”
Daulby’s family described him as a “hero” who “tragically lost his life in the act of courage to save others”. Cravitz was remembered by neighbours as a “lovely, lovely bloke” who had simply come to worship on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
ISIS Allegiance and Extremist Ideology
Counter-terrorism officers believe the Syrian-born UK citizen was influenced by extremist Islamist ideology. Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts confirmed that Al-Shamie had called 999 during the attack and “pledged allegiance to Islamic State”, though MI5 has yet to establish any formal links between Al-Shamie and the terror group despite his claim to have acted on their behalf.
The terrorist, who entered the UK as a young child and gained British citizenship in 2006 at age 16, had not been referred to the government’s Prevent counter-terrorism programme. However, he was on police bail at the time of the attack for an alleged rape committed earlier in 2025.
Police are also investigating whether Al-Shamie authored a death threat sent to Conservative MP John Howell in 2012 after Howell expressed support for Israel. The email, signed “Jihad Alshamie”, stated: “It is people like you who deserve to die.”
Father Praised Hamas Attack as “God’s Men on Earth”
Al-Shamie’s father, Faraj, a trauma surgeon who has worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross in war zones including Sudan and Afghanistan, condemned his son’s attack in a statement released on behalf of the family. “The al-Shamie family in the UK and abroad strongly condemns this heinous act, which targeted peaceful, innocent civilians,” the statement read.
However, The Times uncovered a Facebook post from October 7, 2023, in which Faraj al-Shamie praised Hamas’s attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people. He wrote that the Hamas fighters were “God’s men on earth” and that their actions “prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Israel will not remain.
The attack has sent shockwaves through Britain’s Jewish community, with Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis stating it was “the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come”, pointing to rising antisemitic incidents across the UK following the October 7 attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the attack “vile” and said Al-Shamie had “attacked Jews because they are Jews, and attacked Britain because of our values. Additional police protection has been deployed to synagogues across the country as the Jewish community grapples with what many describe as their worst nightmare becoming reality.
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