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13/12/01 - Within 48 hours, his name
was top of a list of suspects
By Jason Bennetto and Paul Peachey
The Independent
The police believe it was a fluke that Roy Whiting stopped
by the play area on a sunny July evening last year just
as Sarah Payne momentarily went out of the sight of
her family. That brief encounter was enough for Whiting
to strike.
What followed was one of Britain's biggest manhunts,
costing more than £2m. The awfulness of the crime
made the case a cause célèbre. Despite
correctly identifying the suspected killer within hours
of the abduction, the police only achieved their breakthrough
five months later after forensic scientists provided
crucial evidence.
On 1 July, after Sarah went missing, the Payne family
called the police. Inspector Jeffrey Lister was quickly
on the scene and, realising this was no ordinary missing
person inquiry, he called Detective Superintendent Alan
Ladley to take over the case. Despite an enormous police
operation, it would be another 16 days before the girl
was found dead and partly buried in a field about 12
miles away.
The morning after Sarah's disappearance, Det Supt Ladley
asked Detective Inspector Paul Williams to draw up a
list of the top five predatory paedophiles in the area.
By the early afternoon, the names were ready and 42-year-old
Whiting – who had been jailed five years earlier
for abducting and sexually assaulting a nine-year-old
girl – was top of the list.
At 7.45pm, four officers were sent to Whiting's scruffy
one-bedroom flat in Littlehampton. Whiting said had
spent the previous evening at a funfair in Hove, leaving
at 8.30pm and arriving home an hour later but the detectives
were suspicious. Having searched the flat, they found
nothing and decided to hide in their car and watch Whiting's
flat and a white Fiat Ducato van he bought a week before
Sarah's disappearance.
At about 11pm, Whiting left his flat and was about to
drive off in his van when the police drove alongside
him and blocked him in. The vehicle was seized and Whiting
was arrested on suspicion of the abduction of Sarah.
Detective Constable Steve Wagstaff recalled: "He
was visibly shaking, so much so that he actually had
problems switching off the engine. He was sweating."
Whiting was later questioned and released without charge.
The interview would set a familiar pattern with Whiting
refusing to say little other than "no comment".
In all, Whiting was questioned for four hours during
eight separate interviews. Officers later described
him as "nonchalant", "cold" and,
at times, "arrogant". A search of his van
produced the first piece of evidence.
A £20 receipt for diesel bought just before 10pm
on the night of Sarah's abduction. It put Whiting close
to the scene of the crime. Police also found in the
van what amounted to a paedophile kit – a bottle
of baby oil, two plastic ties that could be used to
secure hands, a three-inch knife, a roll of masking
tape, and a pick-axe and shovel.
While the evidence began to mount, Sussex Police, aided
by hundreds of volunteers and enormous media interest,
were continuing to search for Sarah as part of Operation
Maple. On 17 July, a farm labourer called Luke Coleman
was working in a field close to the A29 near Pulborough
when he discovered Sarah partly buried in undergrowth.
A pathologist concluded that Sarah was probably suffocated
to death. There was no evidence of a physical or sexual
assault, although the body was decomposing – making
it difficult to tell. Police believe she was probably
murdered in or close to the field where she was found
and hurriedly buried on the night of her abduction.
A few days later, a motorist noticed one of Sarah's
black shoes, in a hedge less than four miles from her
makeshift grave.
The right shoe was the only item of her clothing to
be recovered. The Forensic Science Service found four
red fibres from one of Whiting's sweatshirts on Velcro
on the shoe. Sweatshirt fibres were also found in Sarah's
scalp. Later, a multicoloured fibre was found on the
shoe that came from a clown pattern curtain in Whiting's
van.
There was a setback, however, when witnesses, including
Lee, failed to pick out Whiting in two ID parades But
circumstantial evidence emerged when the police obtained
photographs taken by an aeroplane that was doing a photographic
survey of coastal erosion. The pictures taken on the
evening of the abduction revealed that – at 6pm
– Whiting's white van was not outside his flat.
Whiting was not the police's only subject – several
other paedophiles in the area were also strong contenders
– but he remained the prime one. During the intense
police surveillance and questioning Whiting appeared
to snap. On 23 July, he stole a Vauxhall Nova. Hours
later, he was spotted by police who gave chase. Using
his knowledge of Crawley's side-streets and his skills
as a banger-car racer he managed to lose the police
on three occasions.
Twice he drove flat out at police cars. Whiting was
finally arrested after he collided with a parked car.
When the case came to Chichester Crown Court in September
last year he pleaded guilty to taking and driving away
a car and dangerous driving. He was jailed for 22 months.
Throughout July and August, Whiting was closely monitored
by Sussex Police, who secretly filmed him to ensure
he did not attempt to abscond or attack any other children.
But despite the growing pile of evidence against Whiting,
not until the beginning of the new year was the breakthrough
achieved. Forensic scientists had been testing 39 hairs
found on Whiting's sweatshirt – 38 gave no DNA
reading but the 39th, a nine-inch long blond hair, belonged
to Sarah. While the inquiry continued Whiting was serving
his prison sentence for the car chase at Elmley prison
near Sheerness in Kent.
Concerned that he would be eligible for early release
in February, detectives drove to the jail on 6 February
and took him to Bognor Regis police station where he
was charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Payne.
When he was charged, he merely folded his arms and appeared
emotionless. He then placed his hand up to his face
and wiped one eye. Det Supt Ladley said during interview
he appeared "unfazed, calm, almost bored with it".
He added: "It has to be one of the most heinous
[crimes]. It's probably the most vile crime you can
think of." After Whiting was charged with kidnap
and murder, he was kept in a segregation unit at Highdown
prison in Surrey where a fellow inmate claimed he told
him that he had visited the field where Sarah was buried
in a shallow grave and had described how he stood over
her naked body.
In an interview with the BBC, the inmate, who refuses
to be named, said: "I asked him how he knew [about
the body]. He said a friend had told him. He began to
tell me how he went there, to the grave, and how he
found the child. I asked him why he had not called the
police. He said, 'I panicked. That is why they are going
to do me.'"
At the murder trial, Whiting first appeared confident
and maintained a defiant stance but, in a pattern similar
to what had happened during the investigation, his composure
slipped. As cross-examination continued he became quieter
and quieter – probably realising there was no way
out. |
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