I felt link to Dad... standing where he was killed
Daughter visits site of aid worker’s beheading
SHE was just a teenager when her father was beheaded by Islamic State terrorists.
But, five years on, Bethany Haines said she felt an ‘instant connection’ to her father as she stood at the site where he was murdered by jihadi fanatics in Syria.
David Haines, from Perth, was executed in Syria in 2014 after being abducted and held by a four-man terrorist cell dubbed ‘The Beatles’, whose members included Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, for 18 months.
Six months ago, Miss Haines, 22, decided to travel to the country in search of answers as to where her father was executed and eventually buried.
Her journey led her close to the site where it is believed Mr Haines was beheaded in a video that shocked the world.
She revealed that finally seeing where her father was killed made her ‘feel a connection’ to him.
Miss Haines said: ‘I’d spent years in front of my computer screen back home in Scotland, poring over images of Syrian landscapes in the search for my father’s final resting place.
‘Now I stood on the warm sandy soil near where I believe he was slaughtered by Isis in an execution broadcast to a shocked world. I’d come to Raqqa, despite the danger to myself, to find his remains and to search for truth and justice after deciding, six months ago, I was fed up relying on the UK Government to bring him home.’
She added: ‘Like millions of others, I’d seen my dad in this desolate spot, helpless and on his knees, in September 2014 at the mercy of his brutal executioner, Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”.
‘My research had been my way of regaining control of a situation that I had no control over.
‘Five years of my life was spent at a computer screen researching different locations of where my father may have been held, as well as a timeline of the Isis Beatles’ movements and beheadings.
‘I was nervous because I knew it was a risky decision to go there, for obvious reasons.
‘Finally, standing there last week, everything that I had researched started to come together in my head.
‘I felt an instant connection to my father which I hadn’t felt since before his death.
‘Worries about my safety and time constraints meant that I could view it only from a distance, but the impact of doing just that was immense.
‘The urge to suddenly abandon my security team and go to the location I suspect is his final resting place was overwhelming. I was so close to finding my father, but yet still so far.
‘Thankfully, my rational side took over and I realised I had to think of my team as well as my own safety.’
Mr Haines was among 17 hostages who were held by the group of four IS thugs dubbed ‘The Beatles’ because of their English accents. In a sickening video he was seen kneeling in an orange jumpsuit before being beheaded by Emwazi, the cell’s leader. Mr Haines, 44, had been working as a security consultant for French charity Acted when he was seized in Syria in March 2013.
Miss Haines has vowed to return to the country and find her father’s remains. She said: ‘My trip only lasted ten days, but for me it will last a lifetime.
‘Gazing over at the hills in Raqqa where my father lies, I knew in my heart the search was far from over. One day I will go there – and one day I will bring my father home to rest.’
Last week, two Britons who were among the ‘Beatles’ cell ‘apologised’ for their part in the beheading of Mr Haines.
Alexanda Kotey, 35, and El Shafee Elsheikh, 31, said they regretted upsetting Mr Haines’s family, and claimed they had not carried out the killing.
The pair finally offered a ‘sincere apology’ for their roles in the death of Mr Haines. Asked to apologise for Mr Haines’s killing and reveal the whereabouts of his body, Elsheikh told ITV before being flown to the US that he was not involved in the execution and does not know where it happened.
But he did admit to ‘an interaction’ with Mr Haines in the runup to his death by helping to move him in a van.
‘I have no problem apologising for that,’ he said.
He denied being responsible for Mr Haines’s capture while he was working at a Syrian refugee camp in 2013, or his detention.
In a separate interview, Kotey also offered an apology, despite initially refusing to say anything and insisting he had already apologised in footage that was not broadcast.
‘I felt an instant connection to him’