UK News 05-12-2001 Whiting - I Was Nowhere Near Sarah who: Sarah Payne murder suspect Roy Whiting what: Takes the stand in Sarah Payne murder trial where: Crown Court, LEWES when: Yesterday snippet: "The man accused of murdering eight-year-old Sarah Payne finally broke his silence at Lewes crown court yesterday and insisted he had nothing whatsoever to do with her kidnapping, killing and burial," reports the Guardian after Roy Whiting took the stand for the first time to give evidence yesterday. Whiting denied he had been "out on the prowl" hunting for a child, "and told the jury it was just coincidence he had a white van fitting the description of one seen by Sarah`s brother, Lee, at the time of her disappearance, and a red and black checked shirt and white T-shirt matching those Lee claimed her abductor had worn." The Sun, which publishes an exhaustive transcript of proceedings, explains in summary how Whiting "stripped out wood panelling from his van, steam-cleaned its floor and changed its doors; never mentioned a fuel receipt from a garage which might have given him the complete alibi; claimed not to know the cornfield from which Sarah was abducted even though he had often walked his boss`s dog yards away and had visited several parks, a beach and a funfair in his van, prompting suggestions that he was prowling for a child." Whiting, 42, claimed he could not remember where he had been when police originally asked him "because the officers had been `harassing, badgering and hectoring` him and he signed a false account of his movements to get them out of his flat," says Paul Peachey in the Independent. "He also denied that a small knife found in his van was for `any purpose like threatening or frightening` a child. Mr Whiting said it was `pure chance` that he also had plastic ties and a shirt stained with semen inside his van." The trial continues today. [... more]

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