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06/12/01 - QC: Has that scratch got
anything to do with the fact Sarah was in your van?
Whiting: No, it's got nothing to do with the fact...
By MARTIN WALLACE and IAN HEPBURN
The Sun
ACCUSED Roy Whiting yesterday denied scratches found
on his body after Sarah Payne's disappearance were inflicted
while she was in his van. The 42-year-old mechanic also
said it was "coincidence" that a strand of
Sarah's hair was found on his sweatshirt.
And he gave the same response when challenged about
22 fibres from five items found in his van which were
similar to fibres on murdered Sarah's shoe, clumps of
her hair and her body bag. Prosecuting QC Timothy Langdale
told him: "You just can't admit it, can you?"
But Whiting, giving evidence for a second day at his
trial, maintained he had no connection with eight-year-old
Sarah's killing. Three fresh scratches were found on
Whiting when he was first arrested the night after Sarah
was abducted.
There was a curved 2.5cm wound under his ribs, a straight
2cm scratch on the upper part of his left arm and a
superficial 1cm nick on his right forearm. Mr Langdale
told Lewes Crown Court that police doctor Ewan Gerrard
had confronted Whiting about them but got no reply,
Referring to the wound under the ribs.
Mr Langdale asked Whiting: "How did you get that?"
Whiting replied: "Possibly when I was working on
my van. I was fitting an oil pressure switch."
The exchange continued as follows: QC: "What was
it that scratched you, then?" Whiting: "Possibly
something sharp on the top of my engine."
QC: "Did that sharp object also tear through your
clothing?" Whiting: "I didn't even notice
half the times I had done it," QC: "Was that
scratch inflicted when you were wearing nothing on the
top half of your body? Whiting: "I can't say."
QC: "Has it got anything to do with that girl in
your van?"
Whiting: "No, your honour. It was at least two
days old I think." Mr Langdale repeated: "Has
it got anything to do with the fact that she was in
your van?" Whiting replied: "No, it's got
nothing to do with the fact..." His voice faded
and he did not finish the sentence.
On Tuesday, when Whiting was asked how he got the wounds
by defence lawyer Sally O'Neill, he claimed he was scratched
as he removed panelling from his van. Sarah's parents
Sara, 32, and Michael, 33, watched Whiting intently
on Day 14 of the trial.
The pixie-faced girl was abducted after playing in a
cornfield in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, on July 1
.last year. Her naked body was found 16 days later in
a shallow grave 21 miles away. Mr Langdale said Whiting
had an ideal opportunity to co-operate with police and
demonstrate his innocence when he was arrested for a
second time on July 31.
But the QC said he had been evasive and refused to answer
questions. Mr Langdale added: "The circumstances
had changed because that little girl's body had been
discovered." And he asked Whiting: "Wasn't
this the perfect time to help the police in at least
eliminating you?" Whiting, who denies abducting
and murdering Sarah, said: "I should have Yes."
Mr Langdale responded: "But you did answer some
questions. You did say things about neutral items such
as an oil pressure switch, a blow torch and engine mountings
pretty safe items?" Whiting replied: "I was
getting fed up with the questions at that point."
QC: "There was one easy way to stop the questioning
just tell the police the truth."
Whiting: "Yes." QC: "You can hardly blame
them for trying." Whiting: "I was following
the advice of my solicitor." QC: "Were you
not rather glad to say nothing because the truth was
going to damage you?" Whiting: "No."
The court heard Whiting was arrested for a THIRD time
on February 6 this year.
He was held after scientists discovered DNA evidence
allegedly linking Sarah's hair and shoe to a red sweatshirt,
socks and a clown-pattern curtain found in his van.
Mr Langdale asked Whiting: "When you were being
questioned, did you not think, 'The police are going
to charge me'?"
Whiting replied: "Yes, it was a possibility."
The QC said: "Did you not think, 'If I don't tell
the police, then I as an innocent man am going to get
charged'?" Whiting said: "I was just advised
to make no comment." The court heard that when
police first called at Whiting's Littlehampton bedsit,
the night after Sarah vanished, he took them to his
van and showed them a crumpled, dirty white T-shirt.
After leaving, the cops kept the van under observation
and twice saw Whiting rummage in it. He was stopped
when he tried to drive off at 11pm. And when asked to
produce the white T-shirt he had shown the cops earlier,
he presented a clean one neatly folded in a bedroom
drawer.
The trial has heard that Sarah's 13-year-old brother
Lee saw a van driver wearing a white T-shirt under a
checked shirt just after his sister vanished. When Whiting
was asked what T-shirt he was wearing on the evening
Sarah disappeared, he said: "Possibly the blue
T-shirt I had on or possibly a white T-shirt."
Mr Langdale said: "When you got home on Saturday
evening were you still wearing the clothes you had been
out in?" The question was met with silence. But
after it was repeated, Whiting replied: "Possibly.
I possibly left the top I had been wearing in the van."
The QC asked him "why on earth" he would take
off his top.
Whiting said: "It was a hot day. When I went out
in the evening I could have taken a top off." QC:
"And changed it in the van?" Whiting: "Possibly.
I was hot and sweaty." QC: "You hadn't done
anything to get hot and sweaty on the Saturday evening
had you?" Whiting: "No." When asked why
he had gone to his van after the police visit Whiting
claimed it was to get cigarettes.
But Mr Langdale said: "You are just making this
up as you go along." Whiting was shown pictures
of a clown-pattern curtain taken from his van and a
recovered shoe of Sarah's. Mr Langdale said: "Is
it just coincidence that a fibre which was indistinguishable
from the fibre on the curtain was found on the Velcro
strap of that shoe?"
Whiting shrugged his shoulders, then replied: "They
are common. We do not know what the fibre actually came
off of. It was a coincidence." The QC said: "Not
because she had been in your van?" Whiting replied:
"No." Mr Langdale then asked: "Your red
sweatshirt - is it again a coincidence that a fibre,
four in all, all indistinguishable from the fibres off
that red sweatshirt were found on that very same shoe?"
Whiting replied: "Yes. It is a very common sweatshirt."
Mr Langdale spoke of the total of 22 fibres linking
Sarah's body and shoe to five items in Whiting's van.
And he said: "It can't be coincidence, can it?"
Whiting retorted: "Yes, it could be. You do not
know where Sarah might have been to pick up any of these
fibres herself."
Mr Langdale persisted: "Does it mean there is the
clearest possible evidence that she was in fact in your
van?" Whiting answered: "No. I do not agree.
You are just saying what you have found here."
The QC moved on to a solitary strand of Sarah's hair
found on Whiting's sweatshirt.
He said Whiting could have been "the victim of
an extraordinary accident" if the hair had become
dislodged from an exhibit and somehow got attached to
the sweatshirt. Whiting agreed. But the prosecutor said
the other alternative was the mechanic was the man who
killed Sarah. Whiting insisted; "It wasn't me."
Mr Langdale will give his closing speech today. |
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