| Flowers in Gods Garden
- Articles |
13/12/01
- This must stop now
By MARTIN WALLACE and IAN HEPBURN
The Sun
HER face contorted with agony, Sarah Payne's mother vowed
yesterday to carry on her battle against paedophiles for
the sake of her daughter. Red-eyed Sara Payne made her
pledge after pervert Roy Whiting was caged until his dying
day for killing Sarah, eight.
The 32-year-old mum, comforted by husband Michael said:
"It doesn't stop here. It just begins." Speaking
outside Lewes Crown Court Sara called for paedophiles
like Whiting - who had a PREVIOUS conviction for abducting
a girl of nine to be named and shamed so parents know
who and where they are.
She pleaded: "Let's make sure this stops happening
time and time again. People being let out of prison when
everyone concerned knows this will happen again. It has
got to stop now." Asked what she thought when Whiting
was unanimously convicted by the nine men and three women
jurors, she replied: "I thought of Sarah and nothing
else.
And asked what changes she hoped would come from the tragedy,
she referred to the campaign she and Michael launched
to keep parents better informed about sex beasts. She
said: "You know what I want. Sarah's Law."
Depraved Whiting, 42, had been found guilty of kidnapping
and murdering Sarah at the end of a 4 1/2 week trial Mr
Justice Curtis branded him "every parent's nightmare
come true" and "a menace to every little girl".
And sentencing the beast to spend the rest of his days
in prison, he said: "I will recommend you be kept
in for the rest of your life." Sara burst into tears
and buried her head in her husband's shoulder as the jury
delivered unanimous verdicts. Others relatives shouted
"Yes!" before they, too, broke down sobbing.
Sara and Michael, 33, then left their seats and hugged.
Lank-haired car mechanic Whiting whose father George is
ALSO a convicted paedophile stared ahead without a flicker
of emotion. Sarah's grandfather Terry, 58, yelled, "I
hope you rot" at him as he was led away wearing the
same grimy sweatshirt and jeans he had worn for three
days.
There were gasps of horror as prosecuting QC Timothy Langdale
gave details of Whiting's previous crime. It happened
in 1995 when he snatched the nine-year-old off a street
in Crawley, West Sussex, and sexually assaulted her.
But he only served two years eight months in prison after
a psychiatrist concluded that Whiting, who is divorced
and has two children by different women, was NOT a paedophile.
As the earlier conviction was revealed several jurors
including the foreman, an attractive young woman sat with
tears running down their faces.
Whiting seized pixie-faced Sarah from a country lane beside
a field where she had been playing with her elder brothers
and little sister in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, on July
1 last year. Her body was found 16 days later in a shallow
grave in a farmer's field 21 miles away.
Whiting was nailed by a single strand of Sarah's hair
found on his sweatshirt and 22 fibres from five items
in his van which matched fibres found on the girl's shoe,
hair and body bag.
A semen stain was found on the checked builder's-type
shirt he was thought to have been wearing on the day.
In a telling moment at the end of the case Whiting's QC
Sally O'Neill told the court there were no psychiatric
issues to be addressed.
Speaking just before Whiting was sentenced, she announced:
"There is no mitigation and I advise none."
After the case Sarah's parents stood bravely on the steps
of the courthouse to beg for more efforts to end child-sex
crimes. Fighting back her distress Sara repeated her plea
for Sarah's Law.
The crusade to identify and locate known paedophiles is
backed by The Sun's sister paper the News of the World.
Standing with grief-stricken Michael she told assembled
reporters and cameramen: "What can I say? It doesn't
make me happy.
"But justice has been done, Sarah can rest in peace."
Referring to the name and shame campaign, she added: "This
shouldn't be left on the shoulders of the police. "It
is down to the Government and the Government only. "Right
now we have got a lot of work to do."
Asked if she had any message for Whiting as he started
his life sentence, she said: "I have no message for
that man and never will." Sara said the public had
given her and Michael the strength to get through their
ordeal. She said: "Every time we wanted to stop fighting
or standing, somebody comes up and says, 'Keep going"
and we do."
She also thanked the police who had worked on the investigation
codenamed Operation Maple trial witnesses and the press,
who she said had treated the family with dignity and respect.
Michael said his mind had gone blank once the verdicts
were returned.
He said: "Hearing the judge speaking was a bit difficult.
"Once we had heard the verdicts our concentration
went." The Paynes, from Hersham, Surrey, had attended
every day of the trial along with Michael's parents Terry
ana Lesley.
Sarah's brothers Lee, 14, and Luke, 13, were also in court
for yesterday's verdict. Speaking outside court, Sarah's
wheelchair-bound grandad Brian Williams said of Whiting:
"He should not be let out. Life should mean life.
"They talk about human rights but he hasn't got any.
My grand-daughter was given no human rights." Sara's
sister Fiona Crook, 28, said the couple were informing
their youngest child, seven-year-old Charlotte, about
the verdict. Mrs Crook added: "The moment the foreman
read out the verdicts was amazing.
"A lot of the jury were crying. They realised that
they had done the right thing." Sara's mother Elizabeth
Williams added: "I don't think Whiting will have
a very good time in prison and I'm pleased about that.
"But we can never come to terms with having lost
Sarah. "As long we live she will always be in our
hearts and minds - and she will always be alive."
Speaking later in a TV interview at her home, Sara said
her "little princess" daughter had been such
a loving child that she would have FORGIVEN her murderer.
Sara said: "She really was a lovely child. "It
sounds like we look through rose-coloured glasses but
that's how she was. The worst thing is if she had been
around today she would have forgiven him for what he did.
Without a doubt." Husband Michael revealed that he
had come close to attacking Whiting in court.
He said: "I have nothing but hate for him. It was
everything I could do to stop myself from lurching at
him in court. I just hate him. "It is hard to believe
that he could take away such a lovely little girl for
his own, what can one say, contentment."
Det Supt Alan Ladley, joint head of the murder inquiry,
said of the conviction: "We are very pleased. "It
validates all the hard work and professionalism of my
team over the last 18 months.
"Of course our thoughts still go out to the family.
I am pleased that, hopefully, they can close this chapter
in the case and move on. It's the right result for them."
Whiting was last night taken back to High Down high security
jail at Sutton, Surrey. He was placed in a segregation
unit to protect him from a threatened backlash from other
prisoners.
He is likely to stay at the jail for at least two weeks
before being switched to one of Britain's five "first
stage" lifer prisons. The trial judge ordered that
the F-reg Fiat van he used to abduct Sarah should be destroyed.
Whiting's mother Pamela Green attended several days of
the hearing and was in court yesterday. She did not react
to the verdicts and made no comment as she left the building.
At her Crawley home, her second husband Kenneth Green
said: "Sorry, I don't want to know." In nearby
Crawley Down, Whiting's brother Peter, 45, said: "I
haven't even seen him for 15 years." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
|
|
| Flowers in Gods Garden |
|
| Paul Pearson |
|
| Rosie Palmer |
|
| Sophie Hook |
|
| Sarah Payne |
|
| Victoria Climbie |
|
| Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman |
- Documents
- Audio
|
| The Yorkshire Ripper |
- Video
|
|
