The daughter of a British aid worker who was beheaded on camera by ISIS terrorist ‘Jihadi John’ has revealed she was sick after watching his execution alone in a bathroom.
Bethany Haines, 23, said she turned to self-harm and alcohol after her father and humanitarian worker David Haines, 44, was killed in 2014.
It was the birth of her son, Aiden, now five, that turned her life around and gave her purpose, Bethany revealed.
She was just 16 when her father was kidnapped by terrorists in Syria in 2013. More than a year later, ISIS released a propaganda video of him being executed by Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John.
Bethany returned to Syria in October 2019 to retrace her father’s last movements and find answers surrounding his death.
Bethany Haines, 23, (right) has revealed she was sick after watching the execution of her father David Haines (left) by ISIS terrorists
Bethany visited Syria in 2019 to find answers surrounding her father’s death. Pictured, Bethany with Mustafa Bali, spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces
Bethany (pictured) said she turned to self-harm and alcohol after her father (right) was killed in 2014
Pictured, Bethany with her father as a child
The student, from Perth, Scotland, told the Real Fix podcast that after she was asked about the footage and its authenticity, she locked herself in a bathroom and watched the video alone. She remembers being physically sick afterwards.
Bethany said: ‘At first when you see it all, I thought “this is too good [quality] to be real”. At first I was like “oh ok, yes whatever, they aren’t actually going to do it”.
‘And it was more coming towards the end, and the way they were talking, and the speech my dad gave, and it was almost the look in his eye that kind of told me “you know what this is actually real”.’
She continued: ‘I was more angry than anything else and when the final scene cut out to his remains it was more – I think i was physically sick that day with it.
‘After that it was more anger. I thought “this isn’t right”. It is something that will always stay with me.’
Bethany, pictured with her father, said she locked herself in a bathroom to watch the harrowing video
David (pictured) was a humanitarian aid worker at a camp for displaced people in Syria
David was working as a humanitarian aid worker at a camp for local people forced to flee their homes when he was kidnapped on March 12 2013.
Bethany found out a month later on April 6, and initially was told to keep quiet about the abduction, for fear of scuppering rescue efforts.
His execution was filmed and released in 2014. He was murdered, with fellow aid worker Alan Henning, by the so-called ‘Beatles’ cell of four British militants.
David was beheaded in 2014 after being held by a four-man terrorist cell dubbed ‘The Beatles’, whose members included Mohammed Emwazi – also known as Jihadi John (pictured)
After turning to self harm and alcohol to soothe the pain of her father’s loss, Bethany gave birth to a baby boy, Aiden, now five, which she said gave her a new purpose.
She said: ‘I felt really lost after my dad’s death, I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what my life could be after it. How does someone get over something like that?
‘My son looks so much like my dad it was like he was giving me something to live for because he’d been taken away.
‘It was really perfect timing because it directed me away from this party lifestyle, distracting me from reality.
‘He knows now about his grandad and he will always be a part of his life.’
In a bid for answers surrounding her fathers death, Bethany visited the hills of Raqqa, Syria, in 2019, and found the spot where she thinks her father was executed.
She said: ‘I found the spot where I think my dad was executed. I really wanted to see that spot and visit it because I think the remains are close to there.
‘It was also a chance for me to go and see what my dad did. I had never really been to a country in a crisis and I’d never seen the aftermath of war first hand and I wanted to see what drove my dad to do this kind of thing, given the dangers.
‘I also wanted to see the type of people he was helping as it had been so widely known about ISIS’ atrocities, I wanted to see who he was helping and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.
‘I’m planning my next trip back so it was such an incredible experience.’
Bethany visited a camp for mothers and children who had lived under ISIS rule in Raqqa, Syria in 2019
She continued: ‘I just had this feeling that I was right, this is where it happened and I felt really close to my dad which I hadn’t felt since I was told he had been killed so it was a big comfort to know that this is where he is, it’s not an awful place.
‘A lot of people out there are trying to get him back as well.’
Bethany added: ‘I spoke to several Jihadi brides. I think everyone’s aware of the perception of them and I just wanted to hear it first hand from them and whether they knew anything about my dad now they had been removed from the situation.
‘Each of their experiences and even their personas and personalities were so different from one another.’
Jihadi John was killed on November 12th 2015 in a drone airstrike. During her visit to Syria, Bethany visited the site where the terrorist was killed.
She said: ‘There’s a part of me that would have really liked the opportunity to have seen him in an interview or to have been able to speak to him personally to get a feel of who he was and how he came to the point to do this kind of thing.’