Daniel Khalife joined the Army at 16 because he wanted “to feel what it would like to be free” after an upbringing with a “very, very strict” mother, a court has heard.
Giving evidence at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday, the 23-year-old told the jury that his Iranian mother was “a bit paranoid”, saying of his childhood: “It wasn’t abusive but it was different, being brought up in that environment.”
His strict upbringing, time in the military, and then in prison, has meant he has never known freedom, Khalife told the court.
Of joining the military at 16, he said: “To put it simply, I wanted to get away from home. I wanted to feel what it would be like to be free. I’ve never been free.
“There’s always been some level of segregation … I don’t know what it’s like to be free.”
Wearing a white shirt and light-coloured trousers, he outlined how he came to join the military, explaining that for years he had wanted to become a pilot, but did not do so because he was afraid of heights.
Khalife said he would cycle around London seeing sights including the Household Cavalry Barracks in Hyde Park, which he thought was “amazing”, and later joined the Army.
Born in Marylebone, Westminster, Khalife later moved to Kingston in south-west London with his mother and sister and attended Teddington School.
He told the jury he did not enjoy his education and struggled to learn, but that he passed 10 GCSEs.
Being from a lower income family in an affluent area made him ashamed of his small family home, so he never invited friends round, the court heard.
“I was relatively popular but we were a poor family in a relatively wealthy area,” he said.
“The relationships I formed, in essence, were fake.”
At one point apologising for being “loquacious”, the former soldier told the jury he was not close to his Lebanese father, who “was not a good man”.
He recalled that, at the age of 15, he went shoplifting with a group of friends after learning about powerful magnets in a physics lesson and realising they could be used to remove security tags.
After this incident his mother took him and his sister on a month-long trip to Iran, where he learned to be grateful for all he had in London, he said.
He told the jury: “Every day that I was in that country I wanted to come back.”
Khalife is alleged to have escaped from HMP Wandsworth in September 2023. He faces charges contrary to the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act, and is accused of perpetrating a bomb hoax. He denies all the charges.
