I screamed can you rot in hell, please at evil ISIS butchers who killed my father – aid worker David Haines
WATCHING as one of the terrorist cell who killed her dad was sent to prison for life, Bethany Haines got out of her courtroom seat and moved towards him.
Approaching within a yard of IS extremist Alexanda Kotey, she bravely asked him: “Can you do me a favour?”
As handcuffed Kotey looked up from the dock, she calmly added: “Can you rot in hell, please?”
Bethany, 24, is the daughter of British aid worker David Haines, who was tortured and beheaded by Kotey and three other IS terrorists — dubbed The Beatles because of their British accents — in Syria in 2014.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, she reveals: “I just felt the urge. When Kotey was getting led down, I decided I was going to walk over.
“I take great comfort in knowing that was the last time anything was ever said to him in the outside world.
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“I was thinking of my dad the whole time. I could hear him saying, ‘Stand up for what you believe. Say what you feel and don’t worry about what others say’.
“I knew that moment was now or never. Dad would be proud of me.
Mum-of-one Bethany, from Perth, travelled to the US to read a heart-wrenching victim impact statement in the Virginia court on Friday where Kotey, 38, and fellow Beatles terrorist cell member El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, were on trial for charges relating to the abduction, torture and beheading of hostages in Syria.
As she read the powerful testimony, she looked them straight in the eye while holding up a picture of her dad cuddling her as a child.
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Then Kotey, who was sentenced to life without parole, was marched away to a maximum-security jail. Elsheikh will be sentenced in August.
David was abducted while working at a refugee camp in Syria in 2013 and held for 18 months by Elsheikh, Kotey, Mohammed Emwazi and Aine Davis.
He was tortured and filmed in an orange jumpsuit before finally being executed.
It was one of 27 beheadings the terror group, who all grew up in West London, are believed to have carried out.
Bethany says: “I was so calm when I read my statement. Kotey had tears in his eyes and both looked down for most of what I said like naughty schoolboys.
“For eight years my life has been dedicated to finding out where Dad’s remains are, then piecing together everything that happened to him day by day, from the beatings, the electrocution and the waterboarding.
“I will never forgive these men for what they did to Dad.
“During the trial, I found myself measuring in my head how long it would take for me to run at Elsheikh and lunge at him, weighing up whether the police would restrain me. I hated him that much.
“Telling Elsheikh and Kotey, who deserved the death penalty in my opinion, what I really think was what I needed.
“It gives me about 75 per cent closure. The rest of it will come when I find Dad’s remains in Syria and bring them home.”
I heard all the terrible ways Dad had been waterboarded, how he’d been treated. Listening to the torture stuff was hard. It made it more real.
Bethany Haines
Video of gaunt and pale David, 44, kneeling next to knife-brandishing Emwazi — dubbed Jihadi John — horrified the world in September 2014.
Emwazi died in a drone strike in Syria in 2015 while Davis, 38, was captured in Turkey in 2017 and sentenced to seven and a half years for being a member of a terrorist organisation.
Elsheikh was found guilty of hostage taking and conspiring to murder after a two-week trial last month, while Kotey pleaded guilty to terror charges.
As she held the picture of her dad, Bethany told Elsheikh and Kotey: “This is the man that is my dad, not the man in the orange jumpsuit.
“I have written and rewritten this statement a million times in my head. How can I describe my life without my dad?
“He was a kind, caring and generous man and now I have to find a way to live my life without him. These men didn’t just take my dad, they took the chance for my son to meet his grandad.
“No matter what you say, this was not about religion.
“You abducted, tortured and even participated in the murder of good and innocent people and now you have to live with that for the rest of your lives.
“You both have lost. You have lost your family and your freedom. I hope you think about that in prison.”
Bethany has suffered anxiety, sleep deprivation and severe PTSD since her dad’s death. But she has made it her life’s goal to piece her father’s final days together.
You abducted, tortured and even participated in the murder of good and innocent people and now you have to live with that for the rest of your lives.
Bethany Haines
She has compiled a 200-page dossier of David’s movements gleaned from a trip to Syria and from talking to local police, fellow hostages and government officials.
Support has come from the families of some of the terror group’s other victims, including US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Alan Henning.
Bethany says: “I was completely on my own when I went to the States for the first time.
“But we have now become this hugely dysfunctional family who support each other.
“We had breakfast together, walked into court most mornings and helped each other through the difficult bits.
“We all have different opinions on terrorists; some feel sorry for them, some are ready to forgive, but I would be happy to see them dead.
“I wanted Elsheikh and Kotey to know that they may have taken my father, but I have gained a whole new family.
“I care for them as much as I care for my family. We are now connected by the love and support we have for each other.
“We will always have each other, and they will have no one. I hope that hits them hard.”
During the long days in court, Bethany placed herself two rows from her dad’s captors.
We all have different opinions on terrorists; some feel sorry for them, some are ready to forgive, but I would be happy to see them dead.
Bethany Haines
She says: “When Elsheikh first appeared I was shocked by how he looked. He was suited and booted. He had fake reading glasses that made him look a bit like Harry Potter.
“He had no handcuffs on and a mask over his face that you could only see his beard poking through.
“He had a swagger about him. I didn’t like it. I felt like I had to be close to him to see every reaction, to analyse his body language. He would scratch his neck at points.
“Every time the court heard how something happened in the captivity, he would whisper to his counsel as if he was telling them, ‘That’s not what happened’. He didn’t look at us once.
Bethany found his reaction when presented with witness testimonies and video evidence of the beheadings even more infuriating.
She adds: “There was testimony about Kayla Mueller and he showed no remorse or regret.
“At another important captive’s testimony he just casually raised his eyebrows. Then he was shown the videos of the beheadings, to which he showed no interest or discomfort.
“I was just thinking, ‘How quickly can I get to him’. I felt I had nothing to lose.”
At court, Bethany learned things she had not known before.
She says: “I heard all the terrible ways Dad had been waterboarded, how he’d been treated. Listening to the torture stuff was hard. It made it more real.”
Telling Elsheikh and Kotey, who deserved the death penalty in my opinion, what I really think was what I needed.
Bethany Haines
The jury returned to give their verdict on Elsheikh on April 14.
Bethany said: “I remember getting the call and just rushing to put my shoes on. I wanted to be the first in the courtroom.
“I was so worried it would be not guilty that I forgot how to breathe.
“When I heard the guilty verdict I broke down in tears. I was the most emotional there, I was hugging the other families, who were crying too.
“It was eight years of the ordeal coming out.
“The best part was seeing Elsheikh sloping off to prison. The swagger had gone, he looked defeated, like the game was up. That was what I had come to America for.”
Bethany flew home for a week and then back last week to speak in court.
She says: “I was so excited about telling them what I thought of them. For some it takes weeks or months to write. I wrote mine in an hour.”
Later this year, Kotey has agreed to meet her in prison, then she wants to travel to Syria to lead a dig to bring her dad’s remains home.
She says: “I know where Dad’s remains are to the kilometre and have co-ordinates. If I can’t find them, then I want a plaque or even a statue. That will give me full closure.
“In lieu of a burial place for Dad, we have a tree in woods near my house where I used to go cycling with Dad. He loved it there. I walk the dog every day down there and talk to him in my head.
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“When I spoke to my six-year-old son after the trial, the first thing he said to me was, ‘Did you put the bad guys in jail, Mummy?’.
“I was proud to tell him, ‘Yes, we did.’”
