“I am a patriot, I love my country,” Daniel Khalife said in court

Mr. Khalife has an Iranian mother and a Lebanese father, who he says “was not a good man.”

“He goes in and out, does some damage and leaves,” he told the court.

When he was 15, Mr. Khalife said he got into trouble with the police for theft, but the case did not go to court.

He also said he struggled to pay attention in school but got 10 GCSEs.

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

“He wasn’t abusive, but it was hard growing up in that environment.”

Mr Khalife told the court he felt “a level of shame” about his poor background, adding: “We were a poor family living in a relatively wealthy area, so the relationships I made were essentially fake.”

When asked what his family thought of the regime in Iran, he said: “My mother hates the regime and probably hates the country as well.”

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

After he was caught shoplifting, he said his mother took him to Iran for four weeks because “she wanted to show him how people live.”

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

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

Mr Khalife joined the Army when he was 16 and did his Phase One (primary) training in Harrogate.

“Simply put, I wanted to get away from home, I wanted to feel what it was like to be free,” he told the hearing.

When asked what his views were on England, he said: “I’m a patriot, it’s that simple. “I love my country.”

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

Mr Khalife denies escaping prison, collecting information useful to Iran, collecting the names of special forces soldiers useful to terrorists and hoaxing bombs in his Stafford barracks.

He also faces charges under the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act and is accused of bomb hoaxing.

His evidence and trial are ongoing.