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12/12/01 - Whiting revisited makeshift
grave
Roy Whiting told a fellow prison inmate he visited the
spot where Sarah Payne was buried in a shallow grave
and described how he stood over her naked body. But
he never admitted her murder. The former prison officer,
who was in a cell next to Whiting in the segregation
unit at Highdown Prison in Surrey, said the child killer
claimed he was told by a friend where the youngster
had been dumped.
Whiting also claimed he panicked when he saw the eight-year-old's
body and failed to call the police for fear of being
arrested. In an interview with the BBC, the inmate,
who refuses to be named, said he spoke with Whiting
several times through the window in his cell.
The man, who was not a sex offender but had been placed
in the unit for his own protection after he was assaulted
for being a former prison officer, said Whiting "couldn't
wait" for his big day in court. He also said Whiting
had told him he did not care about Sarah's parents.
Whiting never actually confessed that he had murdered
Sarah to the man whom he met in the months before the
trial at Lewes Crown Court.
But he was fascinated by forensic policing, constantly
asking his prison neighbour about DNA profiling. "The
first time I met Whiting was when I was placed next
to him after returning from an outside hospital when
I was beaten up. It was August 6 this year," the
man said. "He began to knock on my wall.
I think he liked the fact that I was another outcast
like him, someone who was not liked and who was abused.
"I had been studying biochemistry for two years
and he would ask me questions about DNA. He was very
keen to know about DNA. He also told me that he was
the man accused of murdering Sarah Payne.
"I had heard others calling him a nonce and a baby
killer, but that happens to a lot of people. I was shocked
at the time. I thought here is this chap and he is right
next to me." In the weeks that followed, Whiting
confided more and more in the man, claiming he was going
to write a book entitled Convicted By Sussex Police,
and how he had already been offered money for the book.
Whiting added he was going to buy a boat and sail around
the world, blending into the background. It was at the
same time that Whiting made his comments about Sarah
to the inmate, whose story was deemed credible by detectives.
The inmate said: "He never actually said 'I murdered
Sarah Payne'.
But he had a lot of questions to ask. He also made an
admission to me. "He told me he went to the child's
grave. It started out as a question. He said what would
you say if I told you I knew where the child was buried?
He did not say it was Sarah but, considering the charge
against him, I thought how many child graves do you
know about.
It had to be Sarah's. "I asked him how he knew.
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'. "It
made me feel very sick. He was just so casual about
it. He never said he did it but he admitted he was at
the grave."
The man began to notice an arrogant side to Whiting.
He constantly claimed he was going to "get away
with it", and how he would "slaughter the
police" in court. He gave the inmate the impression
that he was looking forward to going to court and taking
the witness stand. "He could not wait", the
man said. "He was looking forward to it, and being
found not guilty. He became excited.
His voice would change when ever we spoke about it.
He thought the police would be disgraced. He always
said they cannot prove it, never, I didn't do it."
Whiting received huge amounts of verbal abuse from others
in the jail, the man claimed. Although he was safe from
physical attack, he was constantly taunted about his
alleged crime.
The inmate said: "People used to chant 'Sex case:
hang him, hang him, hang him', and 'Baby killer'. They
also used to say: 'Whiting, do you like glass in your
dinner?' "He never responded, except when asked
if he wanted glass in his dinner, to which he said 'only
when I'm listening to Virgin radio'. I told him that
was not very wise. He said it was what they wanted to
hear."
Whiting came across as a very uncaring man to the inmate,
who last spoke to him just a few weeks before his trial.
He never admitted to being a paedophile but instead
said he had been in jail for car ringing. It was, in
the inmate's opinion, an example of how Whiting, jailed
for four years in 1995 for a sex attack on a nine-year-old
girl, tried to delude himself about who and what he
was.
Whiting also showed no respect for Sarah's parents,
Sara and Michael. The inmate asked him if the Paynes
had been in court during one of his remand appearances
before the trial. "He said 'Yes they were sitting
behind me, but I could not give a f**k. They put me
in here'. I remember thinking how can he justify that?
The Paynes have lost their daughter in the most horrific
way. "I also asked him if he made money from his
book, how much he would give to the Paynes. He said:
'F**k all, they put me in here'. He showed no compassion,
no remorse." The inmate decided to have no more
to with Whiting when the father-of-one said children
should have Mum and Dad tattooed on their arm to show
paedophiles who they belonged to.
"I told him he was sick, and that I didn't want
any more to do with him." But a few days later
he claimed Whiting pushed a copy of the Sun newspaper
under the inmate's door. Whiting had defaced the Page
Three model, writing on her arm 'Mum and Dad - I am
sweet but not innocent'.
The inmate said: "After that I just felt so sorry
for the parents. I thought about them a lot. I didn't
know these people but from everything he told me, about
the grave, I had an image of that little girl.
"He may spend the rest of his life in jail, but
for that child's mother and father, and her brothers
and sister, they will never be over it. "But at
least he will not be able to prey on any more children.
The world will be a safer place now." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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