I've given up hunt for David's body

HE devoted his life to helping people in the poorest corners of the world but ended up being murdered in the vilest way imaginable.

-  MARK MCGIVERN

Ten years ago David Haines was beheaded by British terrorists who filmed it to put on the internet.

David, 44, was one of two Brits and four Americans butchered in the Syrian desert by members of the Islamic State gang dubbed "The Beatles".

The atrocities set off a wave of hatred and revulsion around the world.

But David's older brother Mike dealt with his grief by founding a charity to combat extremism and speaking to schools about tolerance and forgiveness.

Today he talks of how he has found closure over the murder of his inspirational and much-loved brother despite accepting that the family may never find his remains.

"I don't need David's body to find closure," he said. "I accept that his remains lie somewhere in the Syrian desert.

"I understand that many people would find it hard to move on, knowing that their loved one could lie in a mass grave, discarded and badly treated, because it's inhuman, an affront.

"But in finding forgiveness for Isis I realised I had to many accept things that I can't change.

"I don't need David's remains.

"I don't need a place to go to remember him, because he walks with me every day, everywhere.

"It is part of the process for me, that allows me to break free of the hold Isis had over me while I felt hatred for them."

Isis kidnapped his brother three days after he arrived in Syria while working for a French aid agency in March 2013.

Eighteen months later, the Yorkshire-born dad of two was murdered shortly after American journalists Jim Foley, 40, and Steven Sotloff, 31.

As well as being tortured, David was paraded before the camera that filmed Sotloff's execution days before his own on September 13, 2014.

Aid worker Alan Henning, from Eccles, Greater Manchester, and US aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller were killed later.