Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaeva looked up to mother Zubeidat as an ‘angel’ but, according to one of their uncles, she was the one who allowed them to be introduced to hardline Islamic views.

Ruslan Tsarni claimed that Zubeidat allowed a firebrand cleric into their house to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen table during which he claimed he could talk to demons and perform exorcisms…

According to Ruslan, Tamerlan’s radicalization was well underway by 2007 – right under the nose of his mother.

He told MailOnline that the man responsible was a cleric aged around 30 called Misha and that he was an Armenian who, unusually for such a largely Christian people, had converted to Islam.

As far as he knew Misha was based in a mosque that was a short drive from Cambridge and that he was new to Islam.

A leader from the 50,000 strong Armenian community in Boston however cast doubt on the claim.