ISIS deliberately luring paedos and sex predators to join its ranks with the promise of letting them rape and abuse female prisoners

ISIS is attracting rapists and paedophiles to fight for them by rewarding them with sex slaves, terror experts claim.

Men with a history of sexual violence and domestic abuse are believed to have joined the jihadi group because of the organisation’s use of rape and slavery as a form of terrorism.

The promotion of sexual violence by the extremist group was a vital means of “attracting, retaining, mobilising and rewarding fighters” as well as punishing disbelievers, says a report to be released by the Henry Jackson Society think-tank.

The sexual exploitation of women and children alongside trafficking helped fund the caliphate and was used to lure men from deeply conservative Muslim societies, where casual sex is taboo and dating prohibited, the report claims.

In addition, forced pregnancies - along with forced conversions - were officially endorsed to help secure the next generation of jihadis, a tactic also used by Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

Analysis of ISIS members from Europe and the US found that a cohort had a history of domestic and sexual violence, suggesting a “relationship between committing terrorist attacks and having a history of physical and/or sexual violence”.

It adds that propaganda promotes sexual slavery as an incentive for new recruits and foreign fighters, with the promise of wives and sex slaves acting as a sickening "pull factor".

In April a schoolgirl bravely recalled the horror of being kidnapped by ISIS fanatics and raped daily for six months.

Ekhlas was just 14 when Islamic State fighters swept through her village in northern Iraq on August 3, 2014 as they targeted the local Yazidi community, an ethnic Kurdish group and one of the country's oldest minorities.

ISIS falsely accused the Yazidis of being devil worshippers and thousands of people were expelled from their homes.

Many men were shot dead while women and children were taken as hostages and held as sex slaves.

“My life was beautiful but two hours changed my life," Ekhlas, now 16, exclusively told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show.

“They came with their black flag. They killed our men and raped our girls.

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