Relative of Alan Henning hits out at UK government

Alan Henning had been in Syria to provide aid. Picture: PA

Colin Livesey called the Islamic State (IS) militants who killed Henning “scum” and said he prayed they would “get what’s coming to them”.

Speaking after the release of a video which showed the beheading of the aid worker, Livesey said he was “angry” with the British government.

“They could have done more when they knew about it months and months ago,” he said.

“Just the same with David Haines as well – I don’t think they did enough for him either … I just don’t think they did enough in my eyes.”

Haines, an aid worker from Perth, was killed last month apparently by the same masked British man with a London accent, known as “Jihadi John”, who murdered Henning.

Father-of-two Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, had travelled to war-torn Syria last December to give much-needed aid to the country’s refugees.

But he was kidnapped and then held captive by Islamist extremists, who on Friday night released a chilling video showing his execution.

Livesey, the brother of Henning’s wife Barbara, who had also made impassioned pleas for his release, said of the murder: “There was just no need. For a person who went there to give aid, to help their kids, their people in Syria, and for them to do what they have done, there is just no sense in it at all. I just hope and pray they get what’s coming to them.

“There are no words in the dictionary to describe how I feel towards them, I’ve just got so much hatred for them.”

He said his family had been left “devastated” at Henning’s death, and said he would always remember his brother-in-law as a “kind, gentle man that made me laugh”.

Yesterday Barbara Henning said family and friends were “numb with grief” after receiving the news.

She thanked everyone who took part in campaigns and vigils at home and abroad for the aid worker’s release.

IS has threatened to kill American hostage Peter Kassig next.

Kassig is a former United States army ranger in his mid-twenties and from Indiana.

He went to the region to volunteer in hospitals in Lebanon after serving in Iraq.

Kassig then set up his own charity to deliver aid to Syrians – Special Emergency Response and Assistance (Sera).

He was undertaking a project for Sera when he was detained on 1 October, 2013, on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria.

While in captivity he has converted to Islam.

Addressing the US President Barack Obama, the militant says: “Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment in Sham [Syria], which keeps on striking our people. So it is only right that we continue to strike the necks of your people.”

In a statement his parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, said: “The Kassig family extends our concern for the family of Alan Henning.

“We have read about his work and his generous character with great respect and admiration.

“We ask everyone around the world to pray for the Henning family, for our son, and for the release of all innocent people being held hostage in the Middle East and around the globe.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron has said Britain will use “all the assets we have” to hunt down IS terrorists responsible for the “senseless” murder.

Speaking after meeting with intelligence and defence chiefs, Cameron said the killing of “a man of great peace, kindness and gentleness” showed that there was “no level of depravity to which they will not sink”.

Two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were also beheaded by the terrorist organisation, also known as Isis and Isil (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).

The video emerged a week after the House of Commons overwhelmingly backed the deployment of British military forces to bomb IS positions in Iraq.