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Scots Isis victim David Haines’ brother begs for vile death video site to be shut down

The site contains graphic images of murders, suicides and terrorists executions including uncensored footage.

The brother of Isis beheading victim David Haines has begged for a “vile” death video website with more than three million members to be shut down.

Mike Haines spoke to BBC Investigations along with other bereaved families pleading the communications watchdog Ofcom to take action against a site that hosts videos showing the deaths of their loved ones.

The site, which is unnamed, contains graphic images of murders, suicides and terrorists executions including uncensored footage of the harrowing death of David, who was abducted by ISIS while working at a refugee camp in Syria in 2013 before being beheaded the year after.

A call from devastated families including, Mike and David’s daughter Bethany Haines comes on March 17 as the Office of Communications gets new powers to probe and fine platforms for hosting illegal material.

Mike Hains with a picture of his brother (Image: DAILY RECORD)

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mike said: “It’s horrifying” and labelled the website is “vile.”

He said: “It’s like a drug. Once you’ve had your first taste, you want another taste. So you want to see more, and it becomes more violent and more graphic and more disgusting.

“Every second that we delay in shutting this site down, we are endangering our youth.”

David Haines’ daughter, Bethany, said the comments on the videos are horrendous. “For years I have been trying to keep track and report sites such as this one. I have a fear that my son will one day see the video of his grandfather.”

Ofcom has spent the past 18 months since the Online Safety Act was passed drawing up the codes of practice that platforms have to follow.

The regulator can now start to exercise its powers to investigate and fine platforms for hosting illegal material.

And from the summer all sites must have robust age verification systems to prevent children accessing a range of content.

All websites will now have to show they have systems in place to remove illegal material. If they fail to do so, the regulator can get court orders to block platforms or impose fines of up to £18m.

Over a decade after the traumatic beheading that left Bethany scarred for life, she is now a mum and her top priority is to ensure her son can never see the videos which would haunt her forever.

She previously said: “My little boy’s nine and has just accessed the world of the internet, of course, that’s a great thing. It can help him grow in so many ways.

“But the scary fact is, is that there’s a lot of harmful things on the internet, including my dad’s beheading video and the fear I have of him one day seeing that is something that grows every single day as he’s getting older.

“There’s a whole range of sites showing different snuff videos with people commenting on them and showing not just beheading videos, but children, women, animals, ordinary people being murdered for the pleasure of other people. And that’s something that shouldn’t be allowed.

“[The videos] can also encourage people to carry out these [terror] attacks as it desensitises them to that violence.”

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