Murder of Sarah Payne

Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne (13 October 1991 – c. 1 July 2000) was the victim of a high-profile abduction and murder in West Sussex, England in July 2000.

Her disappearance and the subsequent investigation into her murder became a prominent case in the United Kingdom, as did the campaign for changes to child protection legislation that resulted from the murder.

The murder investigation was also notable for the use of forensic evidence, which played a major role in securing a conviction.

Sarah Payne, who lived in Hersham, Surrey, disappeared on the evening of 1 July 2000 from a cornfield near the home of her grandfather, Terence Payne and his second wife Lesley, in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, England.

Payne had been playing with her two brothers (aged 13 and 11 at the time) and younger sister (aged 5) when she disappeared.

A police search of the local area commenced, and quickly transformed into a nationwide search and national news story, with members of the Payne family (mostly her parents Michael and Sara) making numerous television and newspaper appeals for her safe return.

On the evening of 2 July 2000, officers from Sussex Police first visited Roy Whiting at his seafront flat in Littlehampton as part of their inquiries into Sarah Payne's disappearance.

A number of other suspects, particularly convicted sex offenders, were also questioned and at least one other person was arrested.

Police officers and numerous volunteers scoured the area around Littlehampton for clues to Sarah's disappearance, and her family made daily appeals on national television news for help in finding her.

On 10 July, police announced that they had received information regarding the sighting of a girl who matched Sarah's description at Knutsford Services on the M6 motorway in Cheshire on the morning after her disappearance.

Three days later, Michael and Sara Payne were warned by police to "prepare for the worst", explaining that the emphasis of their inquiries had shifted and that there was a possibility that their daughter might not be found safe and well.

On 17 July, a body was found in a field near Pulborough, West Sussex, some 15 mi from Kingston Gorse where Sarah Payne had disappeared.

The next day, Sussex Police confirmed that the body had been identified as that of Sarah Payne.

Police first visited Whiting's flat on the afternoon of 2 July 2000, but he was not there.

The police returned that evening and questioned Whiting for over an hour before leaving.

The officers left Whiting's flat but were suspicious of his apparent lack of concern for Sarah, which differed from the attitude of at least one other known sex offender who had already been questioned.

When Whiting re-appeared soon afterwards and attempted to drive away in his van, he was stopped by the police.

He spent two days in custody but the police had no concrete evidence to press any charges, although they had found a receipt for fuel at Buck Barn garage near Pulborough, which contradicted his alibi of being at a funfair in Hove at 5:30p.m. and then returning to his flat by 9:30p.m. on the night Sarah disappeared.

Whiting was released on bail.

Police had found a receipt for fuel from Buck Barn garage on the A24, not far from Coolham where one of Payne's shoes was found, contradicting his alibi.

After his initial arrest, Whiting did not return to his Littlehampton flat and went to live with his father in Crawley.

On 20 July, three days after Sarah Payne's body was found, a shoe was recovered from a roadside in the village of Coolham, three miles from Pulborough, and identified as one of those belonging to Sarah Payne.

On 23 July 2000, Whiting stole a Vauxhall Nova in Crawley and was pursued by police at speeds of up to 70 mph before crashing into a parked vehicle.

Whiting was arrested on a charge of dangerous driving.

He was remanded in custody until 27 September 2000, when he admitted to the charges and was jailed for 22 months.

After Whiting began his jail term for the car theft and dangerous driving, detectives carried out forensic tests on his 1988 white Fiat Ducato van, which he had bought on 23 June 2000.

The jury also heard the testimony of two motorists who recalled a white van being parked at the roadside and pulling off a track on the evening of 1 July 2000, near the site where Payne's body was later found.

Roy Whiting was convicted of abduction and murder in December 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

On 6 February 2001, following seven months of investigation, Whiting was charged with the murder of Sarah Payne.

On 6 February 2001 Whiting appeared at Lewes Crown Court charged with abduction and murder.

Whiting pleaded not guilty to both charges and was remanded in custody while still serving his sentence for the motoring offences, but the new charges against him prevented his release from prison during the summer of that year.

Whiting's trial began on 14 November 2001, at Lewes Crown Court.

The jury heard from several witnesses.

The key witnesses included Sarah Payne's oldest brother who had seen a 'Scruffy-looking man with yellowish teeth' driving through Kingston Gorse on the evening that Sarah Payne went missing.

Lee Payne did not pick out Whiting, however, when he was selected for an identity parade.

One of Payne's shoes was found by a member of the public in a country lane and forensic tests had found fibres from Whiting's van on the shoe.

This was the only item of Payne's clothing to be recovered.

A strand of blonde hair on a T-shirt was found in Whiting's van.

A DNA test established there was a one-in-a-billion chance of it belonging to anyone other than Payne.

On 12 December 2001, after a four-week trial before Mr Justice Curtis and a jury, Whiting was convicted of the abduction and murder of Payne and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.