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07/12/01 - WHITING DEFENCE URGES
JURY TO IGNORE EMOTION
By Neil Roberts
The Mirror
The jury in the Sarah Payne murder trial were today
told to base their verdict on scientific evidence rather
than emotions. Sally O'Neill, defending, said a single
strand of Sarah's hair could have got on to the clothing
of defendant Roy Whiting after it had been taken away
for examination by police.
And when forensic expert Ray Chapman dismissed the possibility,
he was "not being entirely scientific, he's being
on the side of the prosecution", she told the court.
She described the evidence of fibres found on Sarah's
shoes matching fibres in Whiting's van as "a leap
of faith", and told the court the fibres could
have reached Sarah's shoes from "dozens of different
sources".
Earlier she asked the nine men and three women of the
jury at Lewes Crown Court to distance themselves from
the "tragedy" of the case. The lawyer said
she feared Whiting, 42, would be thought of as a monster,
saying: "Anybody even charged with this sort of
offence is at risk of being demonised in some sort of
way."
She went on to urge the jury to put aside the emotions
they will feel about the eight-year-old's death when
deciding if Whiting snatched her from a country lane
and killed her. "The one and only consideration
for you in this trial is to decide whether the prosecution
can make you sure that Roy Whiting is the person who
abducted her and was later responsible for her death,"
she said as she completed the defence of her client.
O'Neill also said items in Whiting's van which the prosecution
had claimed were important were not linked to the crime
by any evidence at all. She said mud samples found on
a spade in Whiting's van did not match samples taken
from the site where Sarah's naked body was found in
a shallow grave.
And she claimed plastic ties in the van which the prosecution
suggested were used as restraints were proved to be
unsuitable for that use by forensic scientists. As for
a bottle of baby oil discovered by police she said:
"You are not going to convict him on that."
Whiting denies the murder and kidnap of Sarah Payne.
The case continues. |
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