Brother of IS victim ready to face killers

The brother of murdered Scottish aid worker David Haines said he is prepared to stare down the Islamic State terrorists accused of murdering his sibling when he comes face-to-face with them for the first time today.

Mike Haines is in the US to read a victim impact statement as Londoner Alexanda Kotey is sentenced for his role in the terror cell’s murder of four hostages.

The group – dubbed The Beatles due to their English accents – was said to be made up of ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, Aine Davis, El Shafee Elsheikh and Kotey, and was responsible for the brutal killings of a number of Western captives, believed to include Britons Alan Henning and Mr Haines.

The charges against Kotey, and his co-accused Elsheikh, who was convicted after trial this month, only feature US victims but both he and Elsheikh will appear in court in Virginia today when the families of those murdered by the terror cell address the judge on their collective loss.

Elsheikh is expected to be sentenced at a later date.

Mr Haines, an RAF veteran and former mental health nurse, said: “In some ways obviously I am quite nervous, and in other ways I am looking forward to staring them in the face, to drawing a line behind what has happened.

“And that is the real reason (for) going out to read my impact statement to the court – to draw a line in the sand and say: ‘Yes, you have played a big part in my family’s life, you have had a hold on my family’s life. However, now, that stops.’”

Elsheikh, Kotey and Emwazi all knew each other in England before joining IS.

Davis was jailed in Turkey and Emwazi was killed in a drone strike, while Kotey last year pleaded guilty to eight counts relating to his involvement in the hostage plot.

Mr Haines, from Dundee, said: “What I would like to hear, although I don’t think it will ever happen, is for Kotey to say: ‘I’m sorry, what we were doing was wrong.’

“And if that was to happen (for him to say): ‘What we were doing was not about Islam – it was about the spread of terror,’ then I would actually shake his hand.”

Mr Haines’s 44-year-old younger brother was captured by militants in Syria in March 2013 while delivering aid to the wartorn country.

His barbaric murder the following year sent shockwaves around the world when a video was used by the group.

The family still do not know what has happened to Mr Haines’s body.

His brother, who runs education charity Global Acts Of Unity in honour of his brother, said: “Wherever David’s remains lie, whatever has been done to them... David walks with me still.”

Kotey is expected to be given a life sentence but could yet be brought to the UK to face trial over the deaths of Mr Haines and Mr Henning.

FAMILY BOND: Mike Haines, right, with his brother David, who was killed by IS terrorists.