The British graduate unmasked in reports as "Jihadi John" was bullied at school, his old headteacher says.
Mohammed Emwazi is believed to have beheaded a number of prisoners held hostage by the Islamic State group.
But Jo Shuter, former headteacher at Quintin Kynaston in Swiss Cottage, north London, where Emwazi went to school, said she remembered a "hardworking and aspirational young man".
"When I arrived at the school in 2002 and Mohammed was already partway through year nine, he was about 14," she told BBC Radio 4.
"My experience of him was that he was a quiet, reasonably hardworking young person. He had caring responsibilities outside of school. He was the oldest of a number of siblings.
"He had adolescent issues... particularly at that age - year nine, particularly the boys, is a time when the hormones start raging, and he had some issues with being bullied, which we dealt with.
"By the time he got into the sixth-form, he, to all intents and purposes, was a hardworking aspirational young man who went on to the university that he wanted to go to."
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