In 2014, he posted an image to the Internet showing his seven-year-old son holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier, an act that was widely condemned.
[1][2] Growing up in the 1980s, Sharrouf had a dysfunctional childhood, reportedly living a troubled youth filled with crime and mental illness.
Jamal Rifi, a local GP, said that Sharrouf was initially diagnosed as having depression, but later believed that it was schizophrenia.
"[3] In 2005, Sharrouf was arrested at his home in Wiley Park along with eight others during an Australian anti-terror investigation code-named Operation Pendennis.
He was imprisoned for four years and released on parole in 2009 after a judge and psychiatrist "cautiously believed" that he would "abandon his radical beliefs.
[11] His activities received wide coverage in Australia in August 2014 after he posted a photo of his son holding a severed head.
[17] With Mohamed Elomar, Sharrouf posted photographs of severed heads or dead and mutilated bodies.
[2][20] When questioned, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said that Sharrouf's death would be nothing to mourn.
In April 2019, the Sharrouf children were reunited with their Australian grandmother in a camp in Syria, expressing the urge to return to Australia.