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Roy Whiting was born in Horsham, West Sussex, on 26 January 1959. He is a former car mechanic and convicted child killer. Whiting is being held in the maximum security Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire.
Pre-convictions
Whiting left school in 1975 with no academic qualifications and over the next few years found himself employed in several different jobs, including doing deliveries for the local co-operative store and working as a car mechanic and paintsprayer at a local garage. In 1986 he married a 19-year-old girl, who became pregnant the same year; however, they separated just before the birth of their son and got divorced in 1989.
1995 conviction and imprisonment
On 4 March 1995, Whiting abducted and sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl on the Langley Green estate in Crawley. He was arrested a few weeks later after a man who knew Whiting came forward after hearing that the abductor's car had been a red Ford Sierra. Three months later he admitted to the charges of abduction and indecent assault and was sentenced to four years in prison. The maximum sentence would have been a life sentence for the crime, however his sentence was reduced because he had admitted the crime. A psychiatrist who assessed Whiting after his conviction said that he was likely to re-offend once he was released.
Release
Whiting was released from prison in November 1997, having serving 2 years and 5 months of his 4-year sentence, and was one of the first people in Britain to go on the sex offenders register. Whiting, knowing that he would not be welcome back in Crawley, moved some 25 miles (40 km) away to Littlehampton on the West Sussex coast where he rented a flat in St Augustine's Road. He lived at the flat for two years before moving into another flat in the same road. On 2 July 2000 officers from Sussex Police visited his flat making inquiries into the disappearance of Sarah Payne.
Sarah Payne murder investigation
Whiting was questioned about the disappearance of Sarah, who had gone missing several miles away from Whiting's flat the previous evening. The officers left Whiting's flat but were suspicious of his lack of concern for Sarah - something that some of the worst offenders had shown when questioned in connection with Sarah's disappearance. When Whiting re-appeared soon after and attempted to drive away in his van, he was stopped by the police and arrested. He spent two days in custody but the police had no concrete evidence - there was a receipt for fuel at Buck Barn garage near Pulborough which contradicted his story of being home by 10.00pm on the night Sarah disappeared. When Whiting was released on bail, he went to live with his father in Crawley while his flat in St Augustine's Road was being searched by forensic experts. No evidence was found in Whiting's flat to suggest that Sarah had been there.
Soon after Sarah's body was found on 17 July, Whiting was re-arrested on suspicion of murder. Her body had been found just 3 miles (5 km) from the service station where Whiting had bought fuel on the night Sarah disappeared, but there was still no evidence to press charges and Whiting was released on bail once again.
A few days after his second arrest, Whiting moved out of his father's house after a vigilante mob smashed the windows with bricks, and went to live in a tent in woodland behind a housing estate in Crawley. He then took to the road in a stolen Vauxhall Nova and was pursued by police at speeds of up to 70 mph (112 km/h) before he crashed into a parked car and was arrested on dangerous driving charges. On 27 September 2000, Whiting admitted taking the car and driving dangerously. He was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment.
When Whiting began his jail term for the car theft, detectives were able to carry out forensic tests on his Fiat Ducato van.
The trial
By 6 February 2001, Sussex Police had found enough evidence to charge Whiting and he appeared at Lewes Crown Court on charges of abduction and murder. He denied the charges and was remanded in custody to await trial.
The trial began on 14 November 2001 at Lewes Crown Court and the jury heard from several witnesses. The key witnesses included Sarah Payne's oldest brother Lee, who had seen a scruffy-looking man with yellowish teeth drive past the field where he and his siblings had been playing at the time Sarah vanished. A female motorist had found one of Sarah's shoes in a country lane several miles from where her body was found, and forensic experts had found fibres from Whiting's van on the shoe. The damning piece of evidence was a strand of blonde hair on a T-shirt found in Whiting's van - the forensic experts who made this discovery said that there was a one-in-a-billion chance of it belonging to anyone other than Sarah.
On 12 December 2001, Roy Whiting was convicted of the abduction and murder of Sarah Payne. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial judge, Mr Justice Curtis, said that it was a rare case in which a life sentence should mean life.
After Whiting was convicted of killing Sarah Payne, it was revealed that he was already a convicted child sex offender and proved correct the Payne family's belief that Sarah had been killed by a child sex offender. There were renewed calls for the government to allow controlled public access to the sex offender's register. This became the campaign for whatis known as Sarah's Law.
Prison
On 4 August 2002 Whiting was attacked with a razor by another prisoner while fetching hot water at Wakefield Prison. Convicted killer Rickie Tregaskis was found guilty of carrying out the slashing which left Whiting with a six-inch scar on his right cheek.*
David Blunkett's ruling
On 24 November 2002, Home Secretary David Blunkett made a landmark ruling. He ordered that Roy Whiting must serve a minimum of 50 years in prison. This would make him inelegible for parole until 2051, when he would be 92.
Within 48 hours of the ruling being made, the High Court and European Court of Human Rights had ruled in favour of another convicted of murder who was challenging the right of politicians to decide how long a murderer must spend in prison before being considered for parole.
In June 2004, it was confirmed that Whiting was going to apply to the Court of Appeal for a new minimum term to be set.
In September 2005, a 40-year minimum term on double child killer Ian Huntley - who killed two girls in similar circumstances - sparked fear that Whiting could use the High Court's ruling on Huntley as grounds for an appeal because he had killed once whereas Huntley had killed twice in similar circumstances and received a lesser sentence.
References
- Guardian Unlimited GallerySarah Payne Murder
- BBC News | UK | Sarah's murderer convicted 2 December 2001
- Whiting judge defends ‘too lenient’ sentence Scotsman.com News 18 December 2001
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