Brit POW Shaun Pinner was electrocuted and forced to listen to ABBA for 24 hours during torture sessions
HOSTAGE Shaun Pinner was electrocuted, stabbed, subjected to a mock execution and forced to listen to ABBA during his time in captivity.
The ex-British Army soldier had to endure Mamma Mia over and over during 24-hour music torture sessions.
For months in prison, Shaun, 48, survived on rations of stale bread and dirty water.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday from his family home in Potton, Beds, he said: “I thought I was going to die. It was hell on Earth.
“The past six months have been the worst days of my life.
“I never want to listen to an ABBA song again or see a loaf of bread. I just am so lucky to be home.”
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After Russia’s invasion in February, Shaun — married to Ukrainian Larysa — travelled to the Donbas region to take on pro-Moscow separatists.
Having previously served in the Royal Anglian Regiment, he was in the Ukrainian army as a contract soldier.
Shaun was captured in April during the siege of Mariupol.
He recalled: “I knew it was bad so I called my wife and I gave her my death message. But she didn’t even cry.
“She just screamed at me that I was a warrior and that I would survive.
"Those were the last words I heard from her and they kept me going.
“It turned into carnage as the Russians ambushed us with mortar bombs and artillery.
“There were so many bodies, it looked like something out of a zombie apocalypse.
“I was surrounded by Russian separatists. They stripped me and put a knife in my thigh for no reason.
"They beat the daylights out of me for 20 minutes.”
A hooded Shaun was then electrocuted. He said: “It was a ferocious shock.
“They did it for 40 seconds each time. It seemed like they were just doing it for fun.
“A guy came in and put a pistol to the back of my head, cocked it and said, ‘You are going to die now’.
"I thought that was the end for me. He then started laughing and said he was joking and pistol whipped me.”
Shaun was then moved to a jail dubbed “The Dark Side” in Russian-held Donetsk.
Heavy metal band Slipknot and ABBA played 24 hours a day on a loop and he was beaten if he slept outside the times specified by guards.
Shaun said: “I never want to hear another Abba song again. I hated them anyway so it really was torture.
“One of the guards said he was going to kill me and send the video to my mum.
“They cruelly stole my wedding ring. It was my darkest day.”
In June, he and fellow Brit Aiden Aslin were sentenced to death as mercenaries by a sham court.
He was moved to a different jail and said: “The conditions were better but they still played music — and this time it was Believe by Cher.
“We had our dark days and I cried a lot. We had to cling on to some kind of hope and that’s how I survived.”
Last week, Shaun feared his execution was coming after he was told to pack his things.
Instead, he was part of a prisoner exchange brokered by Roman Abramovich.
West Ham fan Shaun said of the former Chelsea FC owner: “I told him he really looked like Roman Abramovich. He replied, ‘That’s because I am’.
“He said he was working with humanitarian aid.
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“We got a picture with him and I asked him why he didn’t buy West Ham and he said because Chelsea was closer to his house.
“He truly did save my life.”
Brothers in arms
SHAUN and Aiden have matching Happy Days tattoos to remind them of their soldiering.
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They got them while drunk in Moldova when getting their Ukraine visas.
Serving in Syria, they would say “Happy Days” when things got tough.