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04/12/01 - "MEMORY BLANKS"
OF SARAH ACCUSED
By Neil Roberts
The Mirror
The man accused of killing schoolgirl Sarah Payne today
told a court he had suffered from "memory blanks"
the day after the eight year old disappeared. Accused:
Roy Whiting Prosecution barrister Timothy Langdale QC
asked Roy Whiting why he hadn't told police who interviewed
him on Sunday July 2 where he had been the day before
- the day Sarah went missing.
Whiting said he had a "memory blank" because
he felt the police were harrassing him. "I couldn't
remember where I had been," he told the court.
The 42-year-old odd job man also gave evidence about
his white van, his movements on the day Sarah went missing
and his knowledge of the areas where Sarah was abducted
and where her body was found.
Whiting said he thoroughly cleaned the interior of his
white Fiat Ducato van with a high-pressure hose the
day after Sarah went missing. He said it had been "filthy,
oily and greasy". He had bought the vehicle just
a week earlier for £400 and said he had been trying
to smarten it up.
The interior had wooden panelling when he bought it,
which was missing when police examined the van. Whiting
said the panelling hadn't fitted properly and he'd thrown
it away. Mr Langdale asked why Whiting failed to mention
any of this to police when they visited him on July
2. "The reason you were worried was because Sarah
Payne had been in the back of your van," the prosecutor
suggested.
Mr Whiting replied: "I have nothing to fear. I
just forgot that I had been out on that day." Earlier,
Whiting confirmed he had often used the A29 road in
West Sussex. Sarah's body was found in a shallow grave
near the road at Pulborough. He said: "I drove
up and down the A29 back in the early eighties because
my mother used to live in Littlehampton and I would
leave her's to go back to my Dad's in Crawley."
He told Lewes Crown Court he had been working on a house
in the area until the month before Sarah disappeared,
but had quit on June 17. He said he had regularly walked
his employer's dogs in the Kingston Gorse area, where
Sarah went missing.
When Whiting was asked about his movements on the day
Sarah disappeared he told the court he had worked on
his van, then drifted alone from park to park as he
was "bored". He also said he was visiting
a funfair at about the time the prosecution say he abducted
Sarah from near her grandparents' house. Whiting denies
the kidnap and murder of Sarah Payne.
The trial continues. |
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