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13/12/01 - Tragedy that touched Britain
by Simon Freeman
The Payne family's trip to the seaside was made on the
spur of the moment and ended in unthinkable tragedy.
On Saturday July 1, 2000, a hot summer's day, Sara and
Michael Payne rounded up their four children and dog
Fifa and bundled them into the car. Michael, a spray-painter
working nights, had decided the family should visit
his father Terry and stepmother Lesley.
Their home in Peak Lane, between Littlehampton and Worthing,
was a haven where the children had more freedom than
at their house in Hersham, Surrey. The family arrived
in the late afternoon and after dinner went for a walk
together on the beach at East Preston. At about 7pm
the children went to play in a cornfield at the back
of the house.
It is a secluded spot with a rope swing where the four
had played many times before. Their parents and grandfather
went to visit a friend before stopping at an off-licence
on the way home for wine and cigarettes. The four siblings
had climbed trees and pretended to be dinosaurs for
about half an hour when Sarah tripped and hurt herself.
There had been a squabble and she ran off seeking her
grandma back at the house. Her brother Lee followed,
trying to patch things up. But as he stepped through
the gate into tree-lined Kingston Lane, two minutes
after her, his sister had gone. Moments before he had
seen a white van drive past, its roof visible above
the hedge surrounding the field. At the junction of
Peak Lane he saw the van again.
The driver waved and smiled before driving off. When
Lee reached his grandparents he discovered Sarah was
not there and the family started a search. It was unlike
their little girl to go missing and less than an hour
later police were told of her disappearance.
The family had made a frantic search of nearby lanes
and fields, hoping carefree Sarah had simply got waylaid.
But there was no trace of the girl who had been playing
in the corn. The 999 call came in at 9pm. Breathless,
Sara pleaded with the operator: "I've lost my eight-year-old
daughter. She's been missing about an hour and three
quarters.
"She was playing with her brothers and little sister
and she sort of walked away from them. They've gone
to find her but ... the trouble is, she's on holiday
here." Sergeant Geoff Lister was the first officer
to arrive, taking control of the situation as other
officers were called in. Within an hour, the force helicopter
was up, an incident room had been set up in the conservatory
and sniffer dogs brought in.
Detective Superintendent Alan Ladley said: "From
the outset, officers had very serious concerns that
there could be a more sinister explanation for Sarah's
disappearance. "It is because of their judgement
that almost immediately we had the wheels in motion
for a major criminal investigation."
Even the police were taken by surprise at the extent
of media coverage the disappearance attracted and the
scale of public sympathy. Mr Ladley said: "There
was a massive search running in tandem with a major
criminal investigation. It attracted an enormous amount
of publicity and in the first few days we had 17,000
messages from the public.
"At that time we did not know what had happened
to Sarah. It was conducted as a missing persons inquiry
and we were hopeful she would be found alive but as
each day passed the likelihood was becoming less."
As the ground search began in earnest, a second investigation
got underway.
Officers began trawling through a list of 30 known sex
offenders in the local area. Builder Roy Whiting, of
St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, was the number one
suspect. Four years earlier he had kidnapped another
eight-year-old from Crawley and driven her off in almost
identical circumstances. That time, however, he sexually
assaulted her and returned her to the streets near her
home.
On July 2, officers were dispatched to the seafront
bedsit where Whiting had lived since his release from
prison two-and-a-half-years earlier. A white Fiat Ducato
van was parked outside, matching the description Lee
had given and arousing their suspicion. But Whiting
was giving nothing away.
He invited them in, said he had been at home on the
evening before and they left. The officers weren't happy
with his story and, instead of leaving, stayed to watch
the house. A few minutes later Whiting appeared and
walked towards the van. Believing he might be trying
to destroy evidence, the officers pounced and Whiting
was taken to Bognor police station.
When interviewed, Whiting chose to remain silent despite
officer Jeff Riley's plea: "If I'm wasting my time,
if you didn't do it, please tell me." The search
of the van turned up one initial clue, a receipt for
diesel from a garage at Buck Barn crossroads at the
junction of the A24 and A272, 20 miles from the scene
of Sarah's disappearance, timed at 10pm the previous
evening.
It contradicted Whiting's alibi but was not enough evidence
to hold him and he was released on police bail. At that
time, police had no idea of the receipt's significance.
It would ultimately put him less than two miles away
from the spot where Sarah was finally found. Sara channelled
her efforts into the public campaign, appearing at Press
conferences with Michael.
Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Yeo said: "While
we were accepting the probability that Sarah was dead
we were still hopeful." That hope died on July
17. A farmhand at Brinsbury Agricultural College, Pulborough,
found the naked body of a girl in a shallow grave. The
news was greeted with stunned silence at the HQ of the
search operation.
The field was sealed off and police began a murder investigation.
Detective Sergeant Sean Scott, of the force's family
liaison team assigned to take care of the family, broke
the news to Sara, Michael, Terry and Lesley. He said:
"It was the most difficult thing I've ever had
to do. We all wanted to find Sarah alive. We were all
clinging on until that day but by then I think even
her parents were beginning to realise hope was fading.
"It was a race to get up to their house before
the news broke. When we arrived Michael wasn't at home.
"I went into a room with Sara and the other adults
who were there. I started to give the news and Sara
just put her hand up. She said 'Wait 'til Michael's
here'. We waited for five minutes, the longest five
minutes of my life. The tragic thing was that the children
already knew as they were watching TV and the newsflash
came on."
A pathologist who carried out the first examination
found no evidence that Sarah had been assaulted, although
her body had been exposed to the elements for weeks.
The cause of death was believed to be suffocation. Flowers,
teddy bears and cards were placed at the roadside near
where her body was found in an outpouring of national
grief.
Forensic scientists began a painstaking search of the
spot where Sarah was found and took Whiting's van apart
in the hunt for clues. The wooden panelling which had
been in the van when he bought it on June 25 was missing
and was never discovered. The two rear doors were also
missing. A vital clue was reported a day after Sarah's
body was found.
A woman walker had spotted a shoe lying on the roadside
of the B2139, by the A272 near Coolham. She had not
connected the item with Sarah's disappearance but when
the body was found she called the police. It was the
only piece of Sarah's clothing ever found. On July 31,
Whiting was rearrested on suspicion of murder.
He again made no comment, arrogantly shrugging off the
allegations. It was five months after the body had been
found that tests revealed material from Whiting's van
on the shoe. He was arrested and charged with kidnap
and murder on February 6.
Mr Ladley said: "Someone abducting an innocent
eight-year-old girl, snatching her away from her family
and killing her for no apparent reason, has to be one
of the most heinous crimes." |
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