Jihadi John was jilted by high school sweetheart because of his BAD BREATH

Evil Jihadi John had a secret crush on a teenage classmate but was too scared to ask her on a date after being taunted about his bad breath.

Yesterday shocked Ahlam Ajjot – pictured here standing in front of him in a school photograph – told of her horror that the world’s most wanted man, real name Mohammed Emwazi, lusted after her.

The pair were just 16 when Emwazi secretly fixated on her in class. But after constant humiliation at the hands of other girls he was too timid to ask her out.

Cripplingly shy, he was subjected to daily bouts of bullying and was even reduced to tears when one girl mocked him in front of giggling friends by saying he had smelly breath.

Last night Ahmal, 27, said: “I never knew Mohammed liked me and I can’t believe it now when I think about him feeling that way.”

She and Emwazi were in the same maths and English class.

“He was shy and reserved. He was really quiet and didn’t get involved in all the hype and drama of school life,” she recalled.

“He never spoke to girls unless he had to. He was awkward.

“I was so shocked when I saw the news that he was Jihadi John. I couldn’t believe the pictures of him in a balaclava and in Syria. It’s not the person I knew from school.”

Another former classmate said the daily teasing and the jibe about his breath meant Emwazi – who grew up to be executioner for terror group ISIS – always held his hand to his mouth whenever he spoke.

In the most compelling account yet of his formative teenage years, the schoolmate who was in his year up until they both left in 2006 aged 18, told how desperate to be liked, he angered his Muslim parents by slavishly copying the school’s “cool kids” who wore fashionable low-slung jeans, ­baseball caps and hoodies.

Instead of attending his local mosque, he hung out in shisha cafes where he became bewitched by street-wise older Asian men who drove flash cars, smoked cannabis and bragged of womanising. The schoolmate, who doesn’t want to be named, said: “Seeing him on the TV in his mask, brandishing a dagger and beheading people, it is difficult to believe he is the same person.

“Only eight years ago, he was a painfully shy, nervous guy who wouldn’t say boo to a goose. He was bullied and humiliated by girls. To think he has killed so many people is impossible to comprehend.”

Recalling Emwazi’s angst-ridden time at Quintin Kynaston secondary school in North West London, the schoolmate said the awkward teenager developed an intense crush on Ahlam.

He said: “I remember him being obsessed by her. It was sad to watch him trying so hard. She wasn’t interested but he couldn’t read the signals.

“Everyone could see that he was making a fool of himself and that he was borderline stalking her. But he just didn’t get it.

 

“He was so painfully shy that he barely spoke to anyone. Whenever he did, he had this habit of pulling his hand up to his mouth. He’d done it ever since a different girl had told him in front of loads of other kids that he had bad breath. Everyone laughed. He tried to laugh it off, but it was obvious that it had hurt him. His eyes teared-up and he wandered off on his own to a corner of the playground.”

He went on: “Girls thought he was weird and tried to stay away from him. He was short and got the nickname ‘Little Mo’. He shuffled around with his head down and his shoulders hunched. He had no ­confidence and held himself in a really nervous way. But at the same time, he wore trendy baseball caps and trainers. It made him look even more odd. Instead of coming across as cool, he became a figure of fun who everyone took the mickey out of.”

By the time he got to the sixth form, Emwazi’s only friend was a younger boy who’s older brother was killed in a US drone attack on terror targets in Somalia in 2013.

Emwazi and his pal played football together every day after school on a tarmac pitch at the tough Dobson housing estate a short walk away. “We all called it the cage,” says the friend. “Emwazi was a Man U fan and thought he had all the skills. His mate was a better player, though. Emwazi wasn’t very good at all. None of the other lads passed the ball to him.” After football, Emwazi and his friend would head to a shisha cafe. Dark and smoke-filled, it was where many rebellious Asian teenagers chose to congregate, rather than return home to strict Muslim parents.

“Emwazi was always hanging out there,” said the friend. “It was full of unsavoury types who drove BMWs and smoked weed. He was fascinated by that whole scene. I think he was in awe of a lot of the older guys he saw there. He was always desperate to be something he wasn’t.” The friend says he does not know where or how Emwazi became radicalised.

“He disappeared off the radar,” he said. “The next time I saw him was last Thursday when his picture was all over the news. At first I thought, ‘There’s no way they can be right about this’. Of course I now know they are right. But I can’t believe he has done what he has done.

“I would never make excuses for him because he is a monster. But I believe someone else is telling him what to do. As crazy as it sounds, I believe he beheaded all those poor people in order to get approval. Someone in IS has seen that side of him and decided to put it to use for their own ends. They have seen he is weak and pathetic and that he will go to any lengths to be accepted.”

Emwazi’s family home appeared to be empty last night. His parents have ­reportedly fled in fear of reprisal attacks.