Behind The Mask: Who Is Mohammed Emwazi?
A former boss described him as "the best employee we ever had" - so how did Mohammed Emwazi become a notorious killer?
Friday 13 November 2015 05:06, UK
Kuwait-born Mohammed Emwazi came to the UK in 1994 as a six-year-old.
He went to St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school in Maida Vale before moving to Quintin Kynaston community academy in St John's Wood.
A man who went to school with him described Emwazi as peculiar and violent as a youngster.
Preferring to remain anonymous, he told Sky News that Emwazi "got into some fights" and smoked, but there was nothing in his secondary school that could have left him radicalised.
However, he said there was potential for him to be groomed because he kept himself to himself and did not make eye contact.
Emwazi studied at the University of Westminster between 2006 and 2009, earning a computer programming degree.
At the age of 21 he worked as a salesman at an IT company in Kuwait.
His ex-boss told The Guardian newspaper: "He was the best employee we ever had.
"He was very good with people. Calm and decent. He came to our door and gave us his CV."
"How could someone as calm and quiet as him become like the man who we saw on the news? It’s just not logical that he could be this guy."
Emwazi left the company suddenly in April 2010 after returning to London.
Further details about the killer came as emails emerged suggesting Emwazi considered suicide when he was a student, after suspecting MI5 was closing in on him.
He told a journalist in 2010 that he felt like a "dead man walking".
Emwazi had also contacted a campaign group after he was questioned by counter-terrorism officers while attempting to fly from Heathrow to his native Kuwait in 2010.
In August 2013 his parents reported him missing and just months later they were told by police he had travelled to Syria.
Emwazi rose to notoriety in August 2014 when he appeared in an IS video in which he killed American journalist James Foley.
Since then he has appeared in a series of videos documenting the gruesome murders of other hostages, including British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines.