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05/12/01 - I have nothing to hide
- Sarah accused
The man accused of snatching and killing Sarah Payne
said the evidence linking him to her disappearance was
all "coincidence". Roy Whiting, 42, spent
five hours in the witness box at Lewes Crown Court yesterday
answering questions about his activities in the days
leading up to the eight-year-old schoolgirl's death.
Hunched forward, resting his head on his right hand,
Whiting looked directly at the jury as he answered his
questions, only hesitating as he was asked to remember
specific times and dates of the events of July last
year.
In the packed public gallery Sarah's mother Sara, 32,
barely took her eyes off him throughout the hearing,
only occasionally turning her head towards husband Michael,
33, who sat with his arm around her. Under cross-examination
from Timothy Langdale, Whiting said it was a coincidence
he owned a white van matching the one Sarah's brother
Lee, then 13, described speeding along the lane where
she was last seen near their grandparents' home in Kingston
Gorse, near Littlehampton.
He said it was a coincidence he owned a checked shirt
and white T-shirt matching the clothes Lee told police
the driver was wearing. He said it was coincidence he
had spent the previous hours driving alone to a boating
lake, parks and a funfair - places, Mr Langdale suggested,
where young children could be found. He said it was
a coincidence he had a detailed knowledge of the lanes
around Kingston Gorse and the tracks off the A29, near
Pulborough, where Sarah's body was found 16 days later.
He said the small scratches found on his chest and arms
by a police doctor following his arrest on July 2 could
have been caused when he was ripping the wooden lining
from the back of the second-hand van he had bought two
weeks earlier for £400. He said he had used the
bottle of Johnson's baby oil found in the cab of his
van as hand lotion and a small knife, also in the van,
to strip some wires.
He said he had never before seen the two black plastic
ties, found looped together under the driver's seat
by detectives searching his van, which Mr Langdale suggested
resembled "hand restraints". Asked whether
he had anything to do with Sarah's kidnap and murder
he replied: "Nothing, no. Nothing whatsoever."
Mr Langdale asked mechanic and builder Whiting repeatedly
why he had refused to help the police when they questioned
him on 12 separate occasions following his arrest, 24
hours after Sarah had gone missing. At first he said
he had felt detectives were harassing, badgering and
hectoring him.
Then he said he had made no comment on the advice of
his solicitor. Mr Langdale asked: "When two policemen
came to your flat and told you an eight-year-old girl
had gone missing in Kingston Gorse the previous evening,
no doubt you were very anxious to do what you could
to assist the police? Whiting replied: "Yes."
Mr Langdale continued: "And no doubt you were fully
aware of the anxiety and anguish that her parents must
be going through?" Whiting again replied: "Yes."
Mr Langdale pressed: "And you realised one of the
ways in which you could assist the police was to make
sure they could eliminate you from their inquiries?
Whiting replied: "Yes."
Mr Langdale asked: "Can we take it at the very
least you wanted to make it as clear as possible to
the police that you were in no way involved?" Whiting
said: "Yes." The court earlier heard from
detectives who visited Whiting's flat the night after
Sarah went missing. They said he had been "evasive"
in response to their questions about his movements the
previous evening.
Mr Langdale asked: "Why was it not possible for
you to tell the police precisely what you had been doing
on that Saturday?" Whiting replied: "They
were harassing me, saying, 'It's only yesterday, why
can't you remember?'. I couldn't remember where I had
been. I had a lot on my mind, if I was going to move
out of the area or change jobs, and I was driving along
on autopilot, not taking any notice of where I was going.
"I was just driving and did not recall which road
I had taken." Mr Langdale said: "The reason
is you were in a bit of a difficulty trying to tell
the police where you had been the previous evening because
you had in fact been involved in the kidnap of this
very little girl they had come to talk to you about.
True?" Whiting countered: "Not true."
Mr Langdale said: "That was the problem wasn't
it?" Whiting replied: "No." Yesterday
morning, as he was questioned by Sally O'Neill, defending,
the court heard Whiting's account of his movements on
the day Sarah vanished. He said he had been to collect
a part for the van he had bought two weeks earlier,
then driven to Shoreham, visited two parks in Hove before
stopping at a funfair.
He told the court that, after watching the sunset, he
had planned to visit his father in Crawley but had changed
his mind half way, turned around and gone home. Mr Langdale
said: "You have given us a considerable amount
of detail as to what you were doing on that evening,
going to a number of locations because, you told us,
you were bored and at a loose end.
Is it just a coincidence that these locations seemed
to be places where you might find young children? "Why
were you going to places like that? The suggestion is
that the man who abducted Sarah, and I suggest it was
you, was someone who was out on the prowl, looking for
a child. Why were you going to a funfair?"
Whiting said: "I went to look at the rides and
walk about." Whiting was asked by Mr Langdale why,
when he gave a description of the route he had taken
from Hove back to his flat in St Augustine Road, Littlehampton,
he had not told police about visiting a petrol station
near Pulborough. The jury has heard a receipt was found
in his van for £20 of diesel bought from Buck
Barn Garage at 9.53pm.
Mr Langdale asked Whiting why, when presented with the
receipt during his police interview, he still did not
recall he had been to the garage, which was 20 miles
from where Sarah disappeared. At that time, police had
still not found Sarah's body. He said to Whiting: "You
must have thought, 'Goodness me, it proves where I was.'
As an innocent man, you would not have had the slightest
idea that Sarah's body was buried rather nearer to the
Buck Barn Garage than to Littlehampton. "Police
were still trying to find that little girl. Proof that
you were at the garage shortly before ten o'clock might
have been the complete alibi.
"I suggest the real reason you weren't going to
say anything about the garage receipt was because you
were the only person who knew where Sarah's body was
buried." Whiting replied: "No." Mr Langdale
asked why Whiting had, for four days, "stonewalled"
interviewing officers. He replied: "It was the
advice I got from my solicitor."
Mr Langdale then reminded Whiting how Sarah's brother
Lee had seen a man with gaps in his teeth and greying
hair wave and grin as he sped off close to where the
schoolgirl had vanished. Whiting said he did not think
he had gaps in his teeth. Earlier, Miss O'Neill showed
Whiting photographs of items found by police in his
van.
They included the red sweatshirt on which forensic experts
later found a single strand of Sarah's blonde hair.
A bottle of baby oil had also been photographed and
the picture was shown to Whiting. He said: "It
was mine. In the building trade, when you are using
sand and cement, your skin dries up and splits. I went
into a shop to get some cream but they had run out and
I had to get baby oil.
"It was no good. It would not sink into my dry
hands". Before finishing her questioning of Whiting,
Miss O'Neill asked if he knew anything about the black
plastic ties. Police later said they were too big to
be used as wrist ties. Whiting said he had bought them
to use on the van's engine.
The jury has heard how a major aspect of the prosecution
case is the way Whiting allegedly altered the appearance
of his van on the day after Sarah was kidnapped. The
windowless rear doors were switched for doors with windows
and a wooden partition and plywood lining around the
inside of the van's body was removed. It is the prosecution
case that Whiting was attempting to remove the "tell-tale"
signs of Sarah's presence.
He told the court yesterday he had not only ripped out
the lining but also washed out the van with a pressure
hose hours before his arrest. He said he was "80
per cent sure" he had done most of the work the
previous morning. He said: "I ripped the wood out
so I could start work on the van. I took out everything
and I got rid of the lot." Whiting said when he
had removed the wood, the floor of the van had been
covered in grease and oil. He said: "It was filthy
underneath, greasy and oily. I pressure-washed it to
get the grease off."
Miss O'Neill said: "You have told this jury about
washing out the floor of the van. You have told this
jury about going to the breaker's yard and about the
condition the van was in. "You understand the prosecution
case and you are aware you made no comment in the three
batches of interviews conducted by police. You know,
no doubt, that you did not have to give evidence in
this case. Why have you?"
Whiting said: "I wanted the jury to hear what I
have got to say and I wanted the judge to hear what
I have got to say. I have got nothing to hide. "I
have told the truth." Miss O'Neill said: "You
are charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Payne.
Have you in any shape or form been associated with that
young girl?" Whiting replied: "No". Miss
O'Neill said: "Or have you had anything to do with
her death?" Whiting replied: "None whatsoever."
Whiting denies kidnap and murder.
The trial continues. |
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