The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Bethany Haines’ stalker appeals prison sentence
COURT: Daughter of murdered Perth aid worker laments fresh development
The man jailed for stalking the daughter of murdered Perth aid worker David Haines is to appeal against his 21-month prison sentence.
Andrew Murray, 22, was jailed for a year and nine months on Tuesday after he admitted subjecting Bethany Haines, 20, to a degrading campaign of abuse over a six-month period.
Murray, who was said in court not to have fully accepted the devastating impact of his behaviour on his victim, has launched an appeal against the prison term.
Bethany welcomed the prison sentence imposed earlier this week on her bullying ex-boyfriend after he admitted subjecting her to a “degrading and humiliating” campaign of abuse.
Last night she said she had been warned Murray might try to appeal.
“It is pretty clear what type of person he is and the judge made it clear what he thinks of him and I expect he won’t be successful,” she added.
A source close to the case said: “He just doesn’t seem to get how sick and disturbing his actions were and the terrible impact they had on her.
“She felt justice was done when the sentence was imposed and she thought that would be the end of it and she could move on with her life.
“Now he seems to want to drag it out and she will be devastated if he manages to get his sentence reduced, even if it was only by a day.”
Murray was also made subject to a five-year-long non-harassment order at Perth Sheriff Court.
The order was broadened to ban him from posting any “abusive or derogatory” comments about Bethany on any social media platform.
The court was told Murray tore up a treasured 45-page scrapbook which Bethany had compiled in the wake of her father’s death in Syria after being held hostage for 18 months.
She said: “Andrew was completely controlling. I wasn’t allowed to watch the news or put photos of my dad up in the house. It was like he was jealous of how close me and my dad were.
“I was not allowed to talk about it or see the trauma counsellor, or wear jewellery that my dad had bought me.
“Obviously I was extremely vulnerable at the time.
“He took advantage of that fact. In the house he was in control of the finances even though he was contributing nothing.
“He treated me like a servant with the cooking and cleaning.
“It was especially bad because I wasn’t allowed to talk about my dad. Having to hold everything in like that was taking me back to the really dark place I had been in initially after my dad’s death.
“I felt like I was prisoner in my own home.”
Murray, from Perth, admitted stalking the student in Coupar Angus between April 1 and October 3 last year.
David Haines, 44, was beheaded by the terrorist dubbed Jihadi John in September 2014. He was the first Briton to die in the killer’s propaganda videos.
London-born Jihadi John, 27 – real name Mohammed Emwazi – killed seven Westerners on camera before he was finally killed in a US drone strike.