| Flowers in Gods Garden
- Articles |
12/12/01
- 'Predator' who struck twice
BBC NEWS
By BBC News Online's Peter Gould
Roy Whiting: Jailed for previous abduction |
As Sarah Payne's killer begins a life sentence, one disturbing
question remains. Why was a sex offender with a recent
conviction for abducting a young girl free to pursue his
dangerous obsession?
| ---------------------------- |
| "We
looked at our top five predatory paedophiles, and
he was top of the list" |
| Martyn
Underhill Detective Inspector |
| ---------------------------- |
Sarah Payne was not the first girl abducted by Roy
Whiting |
Roy Whiting's behaviour suggested strongly that he was
a man who was not going to change his ways. Sooner or
later, he was going to strike again. He did so with terrible
consequences, ending the life of Sarah Payne and bringing
untold misery to her family.
Kidnapping
Whiting was one of the first men in the country to have
his name placed on the Sex Offenders' Register, requiring
him to keep the police informed about where he was living.
So it was no accident that the day after the girl disappeared,
the police knocked on his door, as Detective Inspector
Martyn Underhill explains. "When Sarah Payne went
missing we had to look at our top five predatory paedophiles,
and he was top of the list," he says. Five years
earlier, in June 1995, Whiting had stood before another
judge at Lewes Crown Court to be sentenced for kidnapping
and indecently assaulting a girl aged nine. The evidence
was disturbing. Whiting had attempted to abduct three
girls. He succeeded in pulling one into his car and drove
off. He told the girl he had a knife, and threatened to
tie her up unless she submitted to the assault.
Jailed: 1995 newspaper report on Whiting |
Worrying
Before the case came to court, Whiting was examined by
a psychiatrist, who concluded that the mechanic did not
have paedophile tendencies.
But Brian Clark, of Sussex Probation Service, says there
was no doubt about Whiting's potential to repeat the crime.
"The fact that he denied the real implications of
the offence was very worrying," he recalls. "It
made the probation service assess him as a high risk offender,
and one that could re-offend in the future." And
were probation officers concerned that next time he might
kill? "They were," he says.
Tragic
In court, Whiting's lawyer described his client as living
a "Walter Mitty existence" but submitted that
the attack was spontaneous and not something he had planned
to do.
Seaside: Stalking ground for Whiting |
The judge appears to have accepted the argument, telling
Whiting: "We sentence you on the basis that it just
happened that you had the knife and the ropes in the car,
and that this offence was not pre-meditated." Whiting
was given credit for pleading guilty and sentenced to
four years in prison. With remission, he spent less than
two-and-a-half years behind bars.
Resources
Whiting's conviction meant that his name automatically
went onto the Sex Offenders' Register. Detective Inspector
Underhill, who helped bring Whiting to justice a second
time, acknowledges that there are two ways of looking
at the case. "My view is that the Sex Offenders'
Act worked because we knew where he was, and therefore
we were able to get to him quickly," he says. "It
didn't save Sarah's life, but it did solve the murder.
"Other people would argue that the Sex Offenders'
Act didn't work because we didn't actually stop him committing
the offence.
Sarah's parents, Sara and Michael Payne |
But with so many registered sex offenders in Sussex, and
in this country, there isn't the manpower or the resources
to deal with them." The case of Sarah Payne inevitably
raises questions about a sentencing system that seems
to take no account of whether sex offenders respond to
treatment in custody, or even whether they agree to be
helped in the first place. Prison kept Roy Whiting off
the streets for little more than two years, and did nothing
to change his behaviour. He emerged as dangerous as the
day he abducted his first victim. And just as probation
officers feared, he struck again...this time with fatal
consequences. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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| Paul Pearson |
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| Sophie Hook |
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