Bungled shoplifting
Born in Australia in 1981 to Lebanese migrants, Sharrouf was convicted after he tried to steal about 132 batteries and six digital alarm clocks from a Big W store in Sydney's western suburbs. Authorities claimed the stolen goods were to be used in homemade bombs.
His bungled shoplifting - according to court documents he ran away when stopped at the register, with "batteries falling from his pockets" - belied a much more violent character.
Expelled from high school in his mid-teens for attacking another student, he began heavily using LSD, ecstasy and amphetamines, while suffering from severe, chronic schizophrenia that may have influenced his eventual radicalization.