The former partner of murdered Scots hostage David Haines’ daughter has been jailed for 21 months for subjecting her to a six month long stalking campaign.
Bethany Haines, 20, last night welcomed the prison sentence imposed on her bullying ex-boyfriend after he admitted subjecting her to a “degrading and humiliating” campaign of abuse.
Andrew Murray, 22, who tore up a scrapbook dedicated to Bethany’s aid worker father during her ordeal, smirked as he was led to the cells at Perth Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis also imposed a five year long non-harassment order banning Murray from having any contact with Bethany.
He broadened the order to ban Murray from posting any “abusive or derogatory” comments about Bethany on any social media platform. However, he rejected the Crown’s bid to ban Murray from writing anything at all about her online as it would be a breach of his human right to freedom of speech.
Ms Haines said “yes” and clapped as he was jailed. She said later it was 'brilliant,' as she was unsure beforehand whether he would receive a prison sentence.
“It is a good result and justice has been done. It has been worth all of the upset and the wait. I just want to get on now with having a happy life," she added.
Sheriff Foulis jailed Murray after noting that he had shown little remorse for his actions and did not appear to fully accept his guilt.
He said: “The report does not indicate recognition on your part of just how serious this behaviour was. Over a six month period the effect of your behaviour was a noted change in the demeanour and appearance of the complainer.
“Your actions in relation to that scrapbook really are very difficult for anyone thinking normally to understand.”
Murray, 22, tore up her 45-page scrapbook she had compiled in the wake of her humanitarian worker father’s death in Syria after being held hostage there for 18 months.
She told how Murray had been insanely jealous of photographs of her and her former partner - and father of her son Aiden - attending her father’s memorial service.
She said he had cut her ex-boyfriend’s head off in the pictures and coloured him in with dark ink to make it look like she was embracing her father’s British-born killer Mohammed Emwazi, who was known as 'Jihadi John.'
Ms Haines said: “There was a photo of me with my then partner John in that scrapbook as he went to my dad’s memorial service with me. He had ‘beheaded’ him and portrayed him as Jihadi John.
“It was a sick thing to do. Andrew was completely controlling. I wasn’t allowed to watch the news or put photos of my dad up in the house. It was like he was jealous of how close me and my dad were.
Ms Haines said he treated like a servant at a time when she was vulnerable, adding: “I was not allowed to talk about it or see the trauma counsellor, or wear jewellery that my dad had bought me.
“I wasn’t allowed to talk about my dad," she said, adding that h behaviour took her back to the 'dark place' she was in following her father's death in 2012 at the hands of Emwazi, who later died in a drone strike.
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