THE PATH from a small public school in Snaresbrook to being a lynch pin in a militant Islamic terrorist organisation responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people is one followed by exceedingly few.

But that was the destiny for Ahmed Omar Sheikh when he joined Forest School as a seven-year-old from nearby Nightingale Primary School.

Now, 21 years later, the father-of-one is sitting in a Pakistani jail awaiting execution for masterminding the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

A chess champion and prize winning arm wrestler there seems to be nothing in Sheikh's school days to suggest that the teenager would so swiftly and inextricably become embroiled in extremist activity.

But while one of Sheikh's teachers from Forest School, George Paynter, is dumbfounded over his ex-student's transition from a "gentleman" who was "old world polite" into a ruthless terrorist; schoolfriends who were willing to talk expressed less surprise.

Gianni Georgiades, who was in same year at the Forest Place school as Sheikh, said: "It is no surprise that he is who he is. He was always self obsessed and always thought he was the big I am."

Another contemporary describes the then 18-year-old as a "very powerful character".

Simon Farnfield said: "He was always showing how strong he was in terms of arm wrestling, at which he was very good, in fact unbeatable.

"He had both strong will and body, so it does not surprise me that he's become passionate about his beliefs."

But all parties agree that the young Ahmed Sheikh was a boy with a forceful personality, well aware of both his intelligence and physical prowess who clearly showed leadership qualities and exhibited no hint of religious extremism while attending the Church of England School.

Described on his university application form as "single minded in the pursuit of excellence" and "very competitive, very focused, very respectable", Sheikh was to leave his degree course at the London School of Economics after just a year to take up arms with the mujahedin Islamic fighters in Afganistan and begin his career with the Al Quaeda organisation.

But before the death sentence was even passed Mr Paynter, who taught the teenager A level economics and clearly had high hopes for his pupil, expressed sadness that the teenager he once knew was already dead to him.

He said: "It's a terrible waste of talent and a terrible waste of life. I feel a little bit like he has died. You cannot believe that this child that you taught could be this other person. This does not sit with the young man that I knew.

"I'm not sure that I would like to see the young man that he has become. I would love to see the young man that I expected him to grow up into."

Andrew Boggis, Warden of the Snaresbrook public school expressed surprise at Monday's verdict. In a school which can count England cricket captian, Nasser Hussein, and actor Adam Woodyatt, who plays Ian Beale in Eastenders, as ex-pupils the addition of such a notorious figure has thrown Forest School into the national media.

The Warden said: "Old pupils don't get death sentences everyday. Our reaction is the same as any humane person. A mixture of surprise and sadness for the family."

July 18, 2002 13:00