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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Chris Hughes

ISIS hostage David Haines asked his captors to 'make it quick' before he was killed

The daughter of a British aid worker slain by the Beatles terror cell has learned her father asked his captors to kill him quickly.

Bethany Haines said her father David had apparently asked the group’s twisted ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, AKA Jihadi John, to “make it quick” as he was led away to his death in 2014.

Her father’s final wish was recalled to her during a two-hour face-to-face meeting with Londoner Alexanda Kotey in Virginia, US, where he was jailed in April for his part in the torture and murder of western hostages.

Ms Haines told ITV news: “He [Kotey] told me that Jihadi John had been away to execute my father and my father knew what was coming, closed his eyes, and said: ‘Can you make it quick?’

“I can picture him saying that, in his orange jumpsuit, with his eyes closed. I can picture him saying: ‘Please make it quick’.” The remains of Mr Haines have never been discovered.

David Haines asked his captors to kill him quickly (PA)
Bethany managed to persuade the terrorist to say sorry for the death (Reach plc)

Ms Haines said Kotey told her that he had been following her father for a couple of days before abducting him.

She also managed to persuade the terrorist to say sorry for the death.

She said: “I asked for an apology.

“I pressed on with it and eventually he did say ‘I am sorry for’ – he just used my words for it - ‘abducting and hurting your dad’.

But she added: “Did he mean it? No.” Kotey also revealed that her father’s death was delayed to give his killers time to film it from different angles to make a famous but gruesome propaganda video.

Mr Haines, from Perth in Scotland, was captured by militants in Syria in March 2013 while delivering aid.

ISIS 'Beatle' Alexanda Kotey speaking to Daily Mirror defence editor Chris Hughes at a secret location in Northern Syria (Rowan Griffiths \\ Daily Mirror)

Kotey was handed a life sentence for his part in a plot to kill US hostages.

Three years ago Kotey boasted to the Daily Mirror, during a jail cell interview in Syria, that he had saved Emwazi’s life when he was wounded on the battlefield, before Emwazi became the ISIS executioner-in-chief.

He and other Brit terrorists were nicknamed the Beatles by western hostages because of their English accents.

Kotey may yet be brought back to the UK to be charged with the deaths of hostages including Mr Haines.

Kotey’s co-defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, will be sentenced in August for his role in the plot. Jihadi John was killed in a drone strike in 2015, while Aine Davis was jailed in Turkey in 2017.

The group are thought to have caused the deaths of four hostages who were US citizens: aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller, and journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley.

Japanese journalists Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa and British aid worker Alan Henning are also thought to be among their victims.

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