A "shy" and "quiet" young woman who masqueraded as her more gregarious Westernised twin sister in an attempt to travel to Syria has avoided jail.

Jamila Henry, 22, pleaded guilty to possessing her sister Jalila's passport "with improper intent" when she was stopped in Turkey en route to the war torn country in March this year.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey, she was sentenced to 12 months suspended for two years and ordered to compete 40 days' rehabilitation activity for the offence, having already spent four months in custody.

Sentencing her, Judge Christopher Moss QC wished her luck and said he had made an exception in her case to enable her to rebuild her relationship with her two-year-old son and pursue her ambition to become a midwife or nurse.

The court heard that the defendant was "shy and quiet" compared with her twin sister Jalila who was "outspoken and confident".

The pair were brought up by their Muslim father and Jehovah's witness mother and the defendant decided to follow her father's religion in her teens.

Henry, who lived in Walthamstow, east London, with her young son after separating from her husband, had travelled to Syria before this year, the court heard.

In January last year, she was among four women who were stopped at Heathrow and as a result she was spoken to by police and a Prevent team.

In May last year, the defendant and her son tried to travel to Turkey via Belgrade from Luton airport but was stopped again and missed her flight.

Her mobile phone was found to contain various images of people holding guns, the IS flag and salute and one with a caption about martyrdom.

On another occasion, she travelled with her son to Belgium via Dover and continued on to Syria via Turkey before returning home six months later.

When she was stopped at Stansted airport on her way back, she admitted that she had been in Syria.

In March this year, Turkish authorities informed British counterparts that the defendant's sister had been stopped and detained for deportation on suspicion she had travelled to Syria when in fact it was Henry using her twin's passport.

Her sister Jalila stated that on March 12, Henry had asked to borrow her passport to use for identification to pawn some jewellery and she had no idea she was going to take it to travel.

When Henry took a coach to Brussels from Victoria station she changed her appearance and wore western clothes to look like her more outgoing sister, the court heard.

On March 16, she was detained in Ankara, Turkey, in possession of the wrong passport and deported three days later.

Meanwhile, her home in London was searched by police and a laptop and mobile phone were found to contain IS propaganda.

The court heard Henry had pleaded guilty on the basis that she had intended to visit Syria but not for any military reasons.

She said she wanted to tend to some of the children who were suffering in the country and see friends who had gone to Syria and were now too scared to return to Britain.

In mitigation, her lawyer Alphege Bell said: "The defendant asks through me to apologise to her family - to her sister and her mother - because there is a great deal of press interest in this case and some of it not kind and she is very sorry for that.

"She wants the court to know the pain and distress she has caused. That is uppermost in her mind as she wants to move forward."

Afterwards, Commander Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: "We don't know Henry's motivation for trying to get to Syria but we do know the dangers she was putting herself in.

"We continue to be concerned about the number of Muslim women and girls who are currently being enticed to Syria. Those that travel, risk being sexually assaulted or enslaved by the terrorist group Islamic State."