When Bethany Haines meets one of the evil terrorist cell who killed her dad in prison later this month, she will give him a letter.
In the note, grieving Bethany, from Perthshire, will remind twisted Alexanda Kotey how both of them missed loved ones this Father’s Day.
Kotey is one of four British-born IS terrorists – nicknamed The Beatles – who kidnapped, tortured and beheaded her father, aid worker David.
Mum-of-one Bethany, who will fly out to the US for a four-hour showdown with Kotey on June 27, said: “I have an opportunity to write him a letter and I’ll hand it to him when I sit down with him in the jail.
"I want to make him realise the devastating effects his actions have had on others – including his own 17-year-old daughter. The message will tie in with Father’s Day.
“It will say something like, ‘Just like my dad, you did not get to celebrate Father’s Day. I did not see my dad and you did not get to see your daughter. But for you, that is by choice. You have the rest of the life to come to terms with that.’”
In April, Kotey, 38, was sentenced to life after pleading guilty to terror offences against hostages in Syria – including Brit David in 2014.
At the same trial, brave Bethany read a moving victim impact statement as she looked him straight in the eyes.
But there is one letter she has already written – a heartfelt note to her dad, which couldn’t be more different.
Today she will bury it under a special tree, which her family use in lieu of a grave, to mark Father’s Day.
In the message, she tells him of her fears about meeting Kotey and how she still feels he could call at any moment to say he’s on his way home. She also celebrates the fact that two of his tormentors have now been found guilty of his death.
It reads: “I guess we can now say we won! We got them! The monsters are gone and will never be free again.”
And, vowing to find his remains in the hills in Syria and bring them back to the UK, she said: “Although they’re gone, I promise I won’t stop. I won’t stop searching until I bring you home. I should have always been searching but I promise I will try and make up for it now.”
Bethany, 24, said she is hoping to talk to security services and finally get to Syria and give her dad a proper burial.
David was abducted while working at a refugee camp in Syria in 2013 and held for 18 months by west-London-raised gang Kotey, El Shafee Elsheikh, Mohammed Emwazi and Aine Davis.
In 2014, a video of gaunt and pale David, 44, kneeling next to knife-brandishing Emwazi – dubbed Jihadi John – horrified the world. It ended with his beheading, one of 27 the group are believed to have carried out.
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.
Earlier this year Elsheikh was found guilty of hostage taking and conspiring to murder after a two-week trial, while Kotey was
sentenced to life in prison.
Bethany said: “I was there for all of the trial. I have been putting together notes and have about 200 pages which have helped piece together my dad’s days in captivity.
“I learned about tough things in the trial like how he was water-boarded. Kotey was the one who held a towel over my dad’s head. It was hard to listen to.
“When he was sentenced to life in jail, I walked across the court room and told him to ‘go to hell’.
“I know my dad would have wanted me to speak my mind and that’s what I did. Since then I feel like I am edging closer to getting closure.
It feels like this year we achieved something for my dad by jailing Kotey and Elsheikh.”
Bethany will meet Kotey in a jail in Virginia before he is sent to one of America’s most high-security super-max prisons.
Meetings with any of his victims’ loved ones is part of a condition of his sentence. She is also allowed to give him a letter.
Bethany said: “I have mixed feelings about the meeting. I know it’s now or never. I want to coolly and calmly interrogate him but know I’ll have to try hard not to get angry and go for him.
"I’m preparing a list of questions and will practise them with the police.
“I’ll rehearse scenarios of what I want to say to him.
“I have a letter from him that is 25 pages that we all got after sentencing. I will be picking that apart in detail.
“I don’t want an apology or him begging for forgiveness. Anything like that will be fake, I know it. He has had meetings with other families over the past weeks and he’s cried in one.
"I’ve also heard he’s admitted guilt to a small degree but hasn’t expressed any true remorse.
“If it was up to me, he would’ve had the death penalty.
“I just want answers – I need to add them to my notes of what happened to my dad. My ultimate aim is to find out where Dad’s remains are and get him home as soon as possible.
"I’ve been doing enough research that I like to think I’ll know how to press Kotey’s buttons. I want him to feel as
uncomfortable as possible.”
Despite Elsheikh’s sentencing expected to take place in August, for Bethany this month’s trip to the US will be her last in her crusade for answers.
She said: “I feel like I’ve been flying back and forth for some time but this meeting will be the last. I want to feel like I’ve really got somewhere so feel quite focused about it.”
Bethany – who often finds Father’s Day hard – has told how she has reason to feel slightly more positive
this year.
She said: “Father’s Days are often difficult when everyone else is with their dads.
“For the past few years I have taken a handwritten letter down to a tree in the woods my dad used to take me to all the time as a kid to ride my bike.
“Without a grave, the tree feels like the best place to connect to him. So I’ve got in the tradition of burying the letter under the tree.
"Often the letters are quite downbeat in tone. But this year I feel there is more that I can share that is positive for Dad.”
The letter starts: “Daddy, it’s another Father’s Day without you. I can’t even say how many years it’s been since I last saw your face as it makes it real.
"It still feels like you’re on an endless trip in some far-off country and that any day I’ll receive a text or a call to say that you’re on your way home.”
Speaking of his tormentors, it goes on: “I stood up in court and looked them both in the eye and told them exactly what they’ve done to our family.
“I hope that I made you proud and you would have rolled your eyes when I asked him to go to hell.
“I’m scared to face him in a room but I know it’s the right thing to do and the right thing isn’t always the easiest thing to do. He will regret the day he dared hurt our family.”
It ends: “I see your face every time I look at the stars and know that you’re up there encouraging me to keep going. Till we see each other again.
"Your loving daughter, Bethany”.
And Bethany has insisted that, although her dad is gone, she will fight hard to keep his memory alive. She always talks to her son about his “grandad David” and vividly remembers the last Father’s Day she had with him.
She added: “I remember we did an early Father’s Day because he was going to Turkey, the trip on which he went missing. We went for coffee, saw a Disney film and I remember him saying, ‘Stay strong and look after your mum.’
“I never dreamed that would be the last one we shared together.
“Dad was a special man. There was the aid worker who people seem to know who was seen in the orange jumpsuit but then there was the smiling, happy man I knew – the guy who wore cargo trousers, loved Disney films and made rubbish dad jokes.
"He was my hero. I’ll never forget him.”
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