“I am a patriot, I love my country,” Daniel Khalifa says in court

Khalifa has an Iranian mother and a Lebanese father, whom he says is “not a good person.”

“He just came in and out, caused damage and left,” he told the court.

At age 15, Khalife said he got in trouble with the police for shoplifting, but the case didn’t go to court.

He also said that at school he had trouble concentrating in lessons, but passed 10 GCSEs.

“My mother was very, very strict,” he said. “I’d say I’m a little paranoid.”

“It wasn’t violent, but it was difficult growing up in that environment.”

Khalife told the court he felt “some shame” about his poor background, adding: “We were a poor family living in a relatively wealthy area, so the relationships I made were basically false.”

When asked what his family thought about the regime in Iran, he replied: “My mother hates the regime and probably this country too.”

“Me and my family are against the regime in Iran.”

He said that after he was caught shoplifting, his mother took him to Iran for four weeks “because she wanted to show us what life was like.”

“One of the things I remember was how educated most young people were and how few opportunities they had,” he told jurors. “Every day I was in this country, I wanted to go back.”

“I hated it. I thought it was a terrible place. The weather, the government, everything.”

At the age of 16, Khalifé joined the army, undergoing the first phase of (initial) training in Harrogate.

During the trial, he said: “To put it simply, I wanted to run away from home, I wanted to feel what it would be like to be free.”

Asked what his views were on Britain, he replied: ‘I’m a patriot, it’s simple. I love my country.”

“I’m English and that’s how I see it.”

Khalife denies escaping from prison, collecting information useful to Iran, collecting the names of special forces soldiers useful to terrorists and committing a bomb hoax at his Stafford barracks.

He also faces charges under the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act and for committing a bomb hoax.

His testimony and trial continue.