A football-loving lad who grew up fixing motorbikes in an unremarkable corner of West London went on to become one of the most vicious members of the ISIS Beatles terror cell.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, one of four senior ISIS militants nicknamed after the 60s foursome due to their UK accents, is said to have taken delight in doling out extreme violence against his captives in Iraq and Syria.
After Elsheikh was jailed for life by a Virginia court today, a lawyer representing the victims' families branded the cell "genuine psychopaths without any moral value".
Elsheikh - or "Jihadi Ringo" - was particularly vile and remained "defiantly remorseless and unrepentant", Raj Parekh told reporters today.
He noted the jihadist had made no effort to meet victims' families, like his co-defendant Alexanda Kotey, who he was found cowering beside among genuine refugees trying to escape Syria in 2018.
Elsheikh is the last of the barbarous squad to face justice over the deaths of the American journalists and US and UK aid workers after Kotey was given life in April.
The Beatles first gained infamy after recording the sickening executions and sharing them on social media.
During his April trial, prosecutors branded Elsheikh the main torturer and said that alongside self-styled executioner Mohammed Emwazi, or "Jihadi John", the pair were the most savage of the four.
The terror cell was so feared in the so-called caliphate, their superiors suspended them temporarily because their methods were too extreme, reports say.
Eyewitness testimonies from those lucky enough to escape said the men took pleasure in waterboarding, electrocuting, beheading and even crucifying one of their victims.
One source told NBC in 2014: "Whenever the Beatles showed up, there was some kind of physical beating or torture."
But Elsheikh wasn't always the vicious warlord he later became.
Elsheikh, who was raised in West London, was born to poet dad Rashid Sigahmed Elsheikh and mum Maha Elgizouli - Communist Party members in their native Sudan who fled to the UK to escape persecution during the country's bloody civil war.
Like Kotey, Elsheikh grew up supporting their local team, Queens Park Rangers, and had dreams of playing for the Shepherd's Bush squad when he grew up, the Daily Telegraph reported in 2018.
Known as Shaf to friends and family, he spent his teenage years in the Army cadets, grew up wearing western clothes, and enjoyed spending time in the countryside camping with his pals.
When he left school, his life was unremarkable and he showed no signs of being the sadistic thug he'd become once radicalised.
Locals reported seeing him tinkering with motorbikes in the family's front garden before he studied mechanical engineering at Acton College and secured a job working as a fairground mechanic.
It wasn't until 2009, when his beloved older brother Khalid was arrested for murder, acquitted and subsequently jailed for 10 years for possession of a firearm, that Elsheikh began to spiral.
After his brother was locked up, Elsheikh's parents split and he fell in with the wrong crowd.
By 2011, he was starting to adopt a more extreme form of Islam and by 21 he had married a Muslim woman from Canada.
His mum - heartbroken over his behaviour and capture - believes he was radicalised by the infamous Islamist preacher Hani al-Sibai - who hailed the 7/7 bombings in London as a "great victory".
After catching him listening to one of his CD's and watching Sibai's videos, she confronted him.
Despite her best efforts, her once "perfect" son had turned into a fundamentalist draped in long robes, with a long beard and a warped world view.
Elsheikh, 33, was found guilty in April of hostage-taking and conspiracy to murder while operating in Iraq and Syria, and sparking outrage by recording the mock executions of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
He is the last of the gang to face justice, having denied eight charges related to the capture, detention and murder.
Emwazi was killed by drone strike in 2015, while Alexanda Kotey is already in prison.
Another man, Aine Davis, is currently locked up in Turkey, but is not considered by the US Justice Department to be part of the group.
