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12/12/01 - Killer had kidnapped before
by Phil Mills
Sarah Payne was not the first schoolgirl whom paedophile
Roy Whiting abducted and sexually assaulted. However,
the nine-year-old he bundled into the back of his car
in 1995 was lucky enough to escape with her life. Roy
William Whiting, born on January 26, 1959 had already
been sentenced to four years in prison for the sex attack
on the girl, who was roughly Sarah's age. The circumstances
were almost identical.
Whiting, then 36, had gone "off sick" from
work in the days leading up to the attack on his first
known victim. The nine-year-old had been playing with
two eight-year-old friends on Saturday June 4 around
the Ifield estate in Crawley - Whiting's home town.
Whiting pulled up beside them in his Ford Sierra, which
he was to modify after the attack, as with his white
Fiat Ducato van following Sarah's kidnap.
The schoolgirl's friends managed to escape but the nine-year-old
was thrown into the "dirty, smelly" red Sierra.
The girl described in the ensuing court case how Whiting
forced her into the footwell in the rear passenger compartment
and drove away. A witness made a 999 call and a full-scale
search was launched.
In the car the girl was told to keep down as Whiting
drove for ten minutes to a secluded copse. When she
asked where they were going Whiting told her he had
a knife and repeatedly told her to "shut up",
but at one stage the terrified girl asked him to ring
her mum and dad. After stopping the car he ordered the
girl to undress and sit in the front seat, which he
had reclined. Five years later Sarah's body was to be
found unclothed.
When she refused to co-operate with his perversion,
he threatened her with a piece of rope. She remembered
him saying 'I'll tie up your mouth.' Whiting finally
drove away, dumping the girl at a church near her home
from where she ran to find her parents. A massive police
hunt had been launched for the schoolgirl and she described
her ordeal to police officers already at her home.
A week later, detectives arrived at Whiting's garage
in Bonnets Lane, Crawley. The normally grubby, unhygienic
individual had tried to clean himself up, as he did
after Sarah's murder. He told them he had recently sold
a red Sierra, having purchased it himself only a couple
of weeks previously. Whiting was interviewed and said
the car had been in his possession all day, but he had
been out of the Crawley area during the relevant times.
Finally he made a full and frank admission, but was
unable to give any reason for his actions. He expressed
deep regret and a wish that the young girl should not
suffer further by attending court. He told police he
had left work early, driven to a nearby shopping precinct,
got out of his car and spotted the three girls, whom
he thought were aged between 11 and 13.
He said he opened the rear door of the car and shouted
at the girls to get in. Two screamed and ran but he
managed to grab one around the waist and throw her inside.
He said he pulled up and ordered her to strip, then
touched her. He said when she refused to touch him he
told her to put her clothes on. He said he had been
panicking during the incident and could not explain
why he had done it.
He said simply: "Something snapped." On June
3 1995 he was sentenced to four years in prison. Five
years later and news of Sarah's disappearance and murder
hit the headlines. The first victim and her mother,
who live in Crawley, were contacted by police days after
Whiting was first questioned in July last year.
The mother sobbed: "How could this happen again?"
Her daughter, now 14, was trying to put the terrible
childhood trauma behind her. Detective Superintendent
Alan Ladley said: "They have both been utterly
shocked.
Her mother, particularly, is suffering what is called
'survivor guilt'. "Her little girl survived what
was an horrific attack and just as she was getting over
it she realised another little girl had been subjected
to a similar attack and had later died. "It has
been a hell of a trauma and had a very worrying effect
on them both." |
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