Widow of murdered Scots aid worker David Haines 'will never forgive' as killer ISIS 'Beatle' jailed for life
23.08.2022 - 07:11
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
The widow of murdered Scots aid worker David Haines said there was 'no forgiveness' as a British member of an ISIS terror group who killed her husband was jailed for life in the US on Friday. El Shafee Elsheikh was sentenced for his role in the hostage-taking scheme after being convicted by a jury in April this year.
The 33-year-old extremist was convicted on eight charges after a trial as the jury concluded that he was part of an Islamic State cell, nicknamed 'The Beatles' for their British accents.
David, 44, from Perth, was beheaded by the twisted terror cell in September, 2014, after he was kidnapped from a Syrian aid camp the previous year. Devastated widow Dragana Prodanovic Haines, 52, who is raising the couple’s daughter Athea, 12, welcomed the sentencing.
She told the Record: "Being sentenced to life in prison is justice but it is not going to change anything or make a difference to our lives.
"For me, there is no forgiveness or forgetting what he did.
"Nothing can fill in the gap in our lives. There is no closure. We will never have any closure until we know where David's remains are and he is brought home. We are hoping that one day David's remains will be found and then we can have closure.
"They are locked away now and they should be forgotten. I hope the rest of their lives will be spent in prison thinking about what they did, all they have taken and what they have destroyed. Not just the people they have killed but us, the families who are left. I hope they have some conscious."
In April, Dragana, David's brother Mike and daughters Bethany and Athea, read victim impact statements in front of Elsheikh and his co-defendant Alexanda Amon Kotey, 38, who was also sentenced to life in prison. Athea was only three