DAVID Cawthorne Haines helped those in need in some of the most hostile environments in the world.

The Scottish aid worker spent 11 years in the military before going to work for various charities in Libya and South Sudan during the periods of extreme violence.

He was in Libya during the civil war of 2011 where he worked as head of mission for Handicap International, which helps disabled people in poverty and conflict zones around the world.

The following year he went to work in South Sudan, which has been wracked by internal conflict since it gained independence in 2011.

He worked for the Brussels-based charity Nonviolent Peaceforce, which sends unarmed civilian peacekeepers to conflict zones.

In his earlier years, Mr Haines attended the Perth Academy and then held "various positions covering security and threat assessments in a number of different countries" in the military between 1988 and 1999.

He later combined charity work with working for private companies, most recently based in Croatia as a consultant director of an Italian-Croat catering manufacturer called Astraea.

He was working in Syria with French aid agency ACTED when he was kidnapped.