| Flowers in Gods Garden
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13/12/01
- Whiting grabbed my girl when she was eight
EXCLUSIVE By MARTIN WALLACE
The Sun
THE mother of one of Roy Whiting's first victims begged
last night: "Protect our children from this evil
monster." Anguished Linda Bunday opened her heart
as paedophile Whiting, 42, was convicted of abducting
and murdering Sarah Payne.
The case mirrored a kidnap attempt on Linda's own daughter
and two other little girls five years previously. Following
the 1995 attack Whiting was snared by a huge police manhunt,
but incredibly only jailed for two years.
Linda's own daughter who we are not naming to protect
her identity was only eight when Whiting grabbed her and
two of her friends. The children had been playing less
than half a mile from their homes in Crawley, West Sussex.
Linda's daughter and one of her pals escaped.
But the third girl, who was then nine, was sexually assaulted
during a two-hour terror ordeal and dumped by the roadside.
The parents of the victim, who cannot be identified, sat
through harrowing evidence during the Sarah Payne trial.
Her furious father told The Sun outside the court: "Whiting
is a bastard, but he's a clever bastard. "At times
I had to hold myself back because I felt myself going
for him as he sat in the dock." Mum-of-four Linda,
39, said last night: "We were extremely lucky that
my little girl managed to fight her way free when Whiting
grabbed her by the arm and tried to force her into his
car.
"But one of her little friends was bundled into his
car and driven off. He sexually assaulted her in the woods
before letting her go. "/ shudder now when I think
what could have happened to all the girls he did try to
take the three of them. "It has always angered me
that he was only locked up for two years.
"I hate him and it disgusts me that he was allowed
to go out and do it all over again. "If he had never
been set free then Sarah Payne would still be alive today.
"He never should have been released back into the
community to destroy even more lives." She added:
"I feel sick inside. Whiting is totally evil.
Thank God he has now been locked up for life otherwise
he would do it all again." Whiting was 36 when he
tried to snatch the three pals as they were walking home
from a park. He threw the one he caught on to the back
seat of his battered Ford Sierra and took her on a highspeed,
30-mile drive.
The screaming youngster desperately tried to break free,
but Whiting had engaged the child locks so she could not
lift the door buttons. She was ordered to duck down out
of sight and cowered in the rear passenger footwell after
Whiting told her he had a knife and threatened to tie
her up.
Eventually he parked in a secluded spot near woods, ordered
her to strip naked and dragged her on to the front passenger
seat. During the disgusting assault he touched the girl,
kissed her and forced her to fondle him.
Meanwhile Linda's daughter and the second youngster ran
to a nearby house and raised the alarm. But as a huge
police search got under way Whiting let his captive go
with the chilling warning: "I'll be back for the
three of you."
The beast was arrested a fortnight later when he was identified
from a photo-fit picture in the local paper. Fearing the
net was closing in, Whiting had changed his appearance
in a bid to fool detectives. He had his unkempt, greasy
hair cropped and dyed his greying patches.
He also sold his clapped-out red Ford Sierra, after removing
a distinctive Bart Simpson sticker from a back seat window.
At first Whiting denied the assault. But eventually he
admitted it at the outset of his trial at Lewes Crown
Court in June 1995.
Whiting claimed he could not explain his actions and said
that something inside him had "just snapped."
Prosecutor Adrian Chaplin described in sickening detail
how Whiting had spotted the girls playing, parked his
car and waited for them to approach before pouncing.
Mr Chaplin said: "When she asked where she was being
taken she was told to shut up and lie down in the footwell
because he had a knife. "The defendant drove a winding
route, stopping off at a secluded spot where he ordered
the girl to undress.
"When she refused he pulled a length of rope from
his pockets and told her if she didn't he would tie her
up. She did take off her clothes, at which stage she was
made to lie down in the back of the car."
Sentencing Whiting, Judge John Gower QC said: "I
have no doubt that you terrified that poor little girl.
"What you did was disgraceful and disgusting. "All
this you did for your selfish sexual pleasure regardless
of the effect it had on the girl and the anxiety which
her absence was going to cause her parents."
Linda's daughter, who is now 14, has been haunted by the
ordeal ever since. Linda said: "She has never really
spoken about what happened other than to tell us he grabbed
her arm and she managed to fight her way free. "She
has always found it too upsetting and still refuses to
go out of our home after dark.
She won't even get on a bus because she fears being surrounded
by strangers. "This lives with us every day of every
week, every week of the year, and we know that if he gets
out he will come back here to Crawley because he grew
up here. "Our daughter had a very lucky escape. But
all three girls have lost their freedom because of what
happened."
She added: "As far as I am concerned any man who
attacks a child should be locked up and not allowed to
live in a community where there are children. It's leaving
him open to temptation. "Drug dealers get greater
sentences than Whiting got first time around, and yet
their victims are people who choose to buy drugs from
them.
"But children like little Sarah don't get a choice
and are trusting of adults because they don't understand
that there are certain people out there who will hurt
them. Where is the justice in that? "As far as I'm
concerned you can have as many paedophile registers and
lists as you want but that will still not totally protect
our children.
"The police can't keep them under observation 24
hours a day. "There is nothing to guard against one
who acts on the spur of the moment. These people will
always re-offend so the only solution is to lock them
in a cage like an animal.
"They should cease to have any rights from the moment
they first offend." Incredibly, Linda and hubby Peter
were not informed by the authorities when Whiting was
released in 1997. They only found out through the parents
of the little friend who had been attacked.
Their daughter has been constantly terrified he would
come back for her, but mercifully he has never lived up
to that threat. After the abduction the leafy street where
all the girls live was turned into a prison camp by fearful
parents worried that the pervert would strike again.
Dad Peter, 41, said: "There's no doubt this man changed
our lives forever - and yet we got off lightly in comparison.
"I'm not a vindictive person but I do believe in
an eye for an eye. "If hanging was brought back today
I'd be demanding he is hanged for killing little Sarah.
"We were all shocked when he only got four years
and knew that he'd be out in less time than that. "That
mistake cannot be allowed to happen again. "What
he has done is one of the worst things you can do to anybody
and their family, so whatever penalty given to him should
be the maximum.
"We are speaking about this for the first time now
because Whiting needs to be portrayed as the evil person
that he is. "It is everyone's duty to now ensure
that the British justice system locks him up for a very,
very long time." |
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