The daughter of a Scottish humanitarian worker who was tragically killed by Islamic State 11 years ago has shared the heartbreaking final text messages she sent to him before discovering that he had been captured.
Bethany Haines was just 15 when her father David was kidnapped by the terrorist group in Syria in 2013.
He was beheaded a year later and the murder was posted online, but his body was never found.
In France, five individuals accused of being associated with the terrorist group are currently standing trial. It was anticipated that Ms. Haines would present in court the last messages she sent to her father, imploring him to respond.
She said she wanted them to hear the impact their alleged actions had on her as a teenager.
In one of the heart-breaking messages, she lets her father know how she did in her first exam and tells him to ‘stay safe’.
Bethany Haines, the daughter of David Haines, who fell victim to Islamic extremists, arrives at the Albert V. Bryan Federal Courthouse during the trial of Islamic State member El Shafee Elsheikh
David Haines was captured and beheaded in 2014 after being held by a four-man terrorist group of Britons dubbed ‘The Beatles’
But when there is no reply she sends another asking: ‘Hey, dad. Have I annoyed you? If I have I’m sorry.’
As she begins to panic, still unaware of what has happened, she urges him to call her and tells him ‘I love you’.
She later texts: Daddy, I need you. I’ve had an awful day. I miss you, dad. I’m sorry. Phone me.’
But three weeks later, when there is still no response, in desperation she tied again saying, ‘Daddy, I need you. Daddy, are you there?’
‘Daddy, you’re scaring me. Where are you, Daddy?’
Ms Haines, who is now 27, read them out on ITV News yesterday as she relived the moment she realised her father had been taken hostage.
She said: ‘It was on my 16th birthday that I realised he had either been killed or something terrible had happened. And the day after was when I was told about his kidnapping.’
The men on trial in Paris include the French jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche, 39, who is serving life imprisonment for an attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014 in which four people died. On the first day of the trial on Monday in which five defendants are accused of running a ‘hostage factory’ in Syria, he denied being an Islamic State jailor and torturer.
Ms Haines said: ‘These men weren’t just jailers. They actively fought in conflicts… it’s important to let them know that it’s not just a small number of people affected.
‘These men have inflicted the most damage they could in a very short time period.
‘And the fact they feel nothing and won’t admit anything just shows that, you know, these people don’t have conscience and deserve the maximum penalty.’
Her father was captured just days after arriving in the war-torn country and was executed the following year, with the brutal murder being made into a propaganda video.
The principal executioner of the group was Mohammed Emwazi, a British terrorist from London who was dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ before being killed by a drone in 2015, aged 27.
Ms Haines said being able to retrieve her father’s body would be a ‘great conclusion to this horrible event’, ‘not just for my dad, but others as well’.
But her priority, she stressed, was to make sure her young son never gets to see the video of the murder of his grandfather which left her traumatised.
She said: ‘The fear I have of him one day seeing that is something that grows every single day as he’s getting older.
‘There’s a whole range of sites showing different snuff videos with people commenting on them and showing not just beheading videos, but children, women, animals, ordinary people being murdered for the pleasure of other people. And that’s something that shouldn’t be allowed.’
The trial in Paris is scheduled to last until March 21 and she plans to attend majority of it.
