A British Muslim woman from north west London accused of sending cash to her terrorist husband in Syria ignored her family’s pleas to leave him, the Old Bailey heard.

Amal El-Wahabi, 27, allegedly hatched a plot for her friend Nawal Msaad, also 27, to smuggle 20,000 Euros in her pants to give to husband Aine Davis.

Giving evidence for the first time, El-Wahabi said she stopped speaking to her parents when she first dated Davis at 19 as they did not like him.

El-Wahabi said Davis was a dealer of cannabis and class A drugs, and had been in prison before they met for gun crime and drugs charges.

She told the jury: “I stayed with him as he was always there for me and helped me out with so much.”

Msaad was en route to Turkey - allegedly a stopping point before Syria - when she was stopped at Heathrow airport.

El-Wahabi told the court Davis was a practising Muslim when they met and they went on to have a son together in December 2008, but temporarily parted because of the company he was keeping.

They reconciled in 2012 and had a second child in May last year.

The court has heard she kept in touch with her husband via WhatsApp after he left for Syria in July last year.

He sent her a stream of videos celebrating the work of rebel group ISIS.

Msaad from Holloway, and El-Wahabi, both deny becoming concerned in a funding arrangement as a result of which money was made available or was to be made available to another, and they knew or had reasonable cause to suspect that it would or may be used for the purposes of terrorism.

The trial continues.