The mother of a London student who has been revealed as an Islamic State fighter today told how her son had been radicalised in prison.

Fasil Towalde, who was killed while fighting in Syria, was a “good Christian boy” until he fell in with a gang and converted to Islam, his family said.

The 21-year-old’s involvement with the terror group emerged after his name appeared on leaked IS recruitment forms. They  include details of 16 British fighters who travelled from the UK to Syria.

The files are part of a cache of  documents leaked to UK, German and Syrian opposition media and said to list 22,000 names. German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said the files appeared to be genuine.

Towalde, from Camden, disappeared in late 2013. His mother, Himan Haile, called the police after three days of no contact from him.

In a tearful interview, she said her son had been raised a Christian and grew up in London after the family fled violence in their native Eritrea.

“Fasil was not too much good, not too much bad. In my home he was a nice boy,” Mrs Haile said.

He was arrested during the London riots and later fell in with a gang and converted to Islam in prison, she added. “I am Christian, I go to church. My child is a church boy. The bad thing is Islam,” she said.

The IS records show Towalde crossed from Turkey into northern Syria on December 28, 2013.

On his registration form, which consists of 23 questions, he wrote his mother’s first name and her address. Eleven months later he was killed as IS forces fought Kurdish troops for control of Kobane in Syria.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mrs Haile said: “He died for what? I don’t know. Every day I cry, in the morning, in the night.”

Of the 16 British jihadists whose files were leaked, at least five are believed to have been killed in the past three years. 

The new details on IS recruits came as evidence emerged suggesting exiled radical preacher Omar Bakri Muhammad has been recruiting fighters from the UK for IS.

Jihadists from Cardiff named Bakri, dubbed the Tottenham Ayatollah before being banished from the UK in 2005, as their “referee”.  They included Reyaad Khan, 21, killed last September in Raqqa in the first targeted UK drone attack on a British citizen.