Tortured British POW stunned with a cattle prod for supporting West Ham and forced to listen to ABBA non-stop
26 September 2022, 15:41 | Updated: 26 September 2022, 16:54
Shaun Pinner, captured in Mariupol, was stabbed, electrocuted, subject to a mock execution and forced to listen to ABBA during his time in captivity.
The ex-British Army soldier endured Mamma Mia repeatedly in 24-hour music torture sessions.
In one incident, which Shaun recounted on Good Morning Britain on Monday 27 September, guards asked Mr Pinner what football team he supported. Before he could finish saying "West Ham", they buzzed him with a cattle prod.
Mr Pinner then quickly switched his allegiance to the local Ukrainian football team: "I said 'Shakhtar Donetsk, Shakhtar Donetsk!' and they were laughing."
Shaun, 48, ate rations of stale bread and drank dirty water for months in order to survive.
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.”
Shaun, married to Ukrainian Larysa, travelled to the Donbas region after Russia's invasion in February to help fight pro-Moscow separatists. The Brit, who had previously served in the Royal Anglian Regiment, was in the Ukranian Army as a contract soldier.
Shaun was captured in April during the siege of Mariupol, and sent a death message to his wife: “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.”
Shaun was then hooded and electrocuted: “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.
Music from ABBA and heavy metal band Slipknot was played 24 hours a day on a loop, and Mr Pinner was beaten if he slept outside the times specified by the guards:
“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.”
After Shaun and fellow Brit, Aiden Aslin, were sentenced to death as mercenaries by a sham court in June, Shaun was moved to a different jail.
“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.”
Mr Pinner also spoke of his interactions with the prison guards:
"We developed a comedic rapport with some of the guards. It was a strange feeling because we were told we were the enemy, but sometimes we would actually have some dialogue with them."
"They were interested in who we are, why we'd come, 'what's London like?'
"We were in the prosecutors office and they were asking randomly what football team I supported. I got to 'West' [West Ham] before they just 'bzzz' [shocked me], and I said 'Shakhtar Donetsk, Shakhtar Donetsk!' and they were laughing.
"After that it became 'you're the comedian' ... so they laid off a lot at that time."
Read more: Roman Abramovich evacuated British POWs freed from Russia on his luxury jet
Last week, Shaun had feared his execution was coming after being told to pack his things.
But Shaun instead found he was part of a prisoner exchange, brokered by Roman Abramovich - 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. 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."
