The siblings of Sarah Payne, who was killed in 2000 when she was only 8, have spoken about the events that led up to her death and what life has been like since her demise. One of them revealed her killer waved and smiled at him moments after abducting his sister.
The siblings blame themselves for not being able to save her. One of her brothers said "'If I'd just run faster I might've caught her" and her sister asks, "why was it her and not me?"
Sarah was abducted and murdered by paedophile Roy Whiting 17 years ago after running ahead of her brothers Luke and Lee and sister Charlotte on July 1 2000. The three siblings saw Sarah sprint through a gap leading to a road on the edge of the field after a game of hide and seek near their grandparents' house in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex. She was not seen alive again. A paedophile who had been waiting on the other side threw her into his white van and waved and smiled at Lee Payne, who was 13, as he drove her away to her death
At the time, Lee had no idea that his sister was in the car with Whiting but thought she was hiding in a crop field. The siblings searched the entire field for their sister but did not see her. The alarm was raised when Luke, Lee and Charlotte returned to their grandparents' house and Sarah wasn't there. It wasn't until the next day that Lee rememberd the man who drove by in a white van and mentioned it to police. Sarah was found dead two weeks later and Whiting was sentenced to life in prison on 12 December 2001.
Lee has spoken for the first time about the moment he realised his little sister was gone and how he "beat himself up" for years about failing to save her.
He said: "When it comes to feeling guilt about the situation, I did for a few years beat myself up that if I ran faster I might have caught up with her. Whiting drove the other way in his van and gave me a little wave as he went."
Lee also disclosed that his father, who died in 2014 at 46, kept a shotgun in the house after Sarah was killed and taught his sons how to use it on Whiting if he was released.
Sarah's sister, Charlotte, who was five at the time, said she feels deep guilt about what happened. Despite being so young when her sister was abducted, Charlotte still remembers the two of them singing and dancing along to Spice Girls' songs as they were growing up. Charlotte, 22, now appears to be on the brink of pop success, with her video performances racking up thousands of views on Facebook.
Sarah's siblings and their mother appeared in a new Channel 5 documentary where they discussed how their lives have been devasteated by her murder. Sarah's father was the only one missing in the documentary having died three years ago.
Luke, who was 12 at the time his sister was killed, cried as he spoke about his sister's death publicly for the first time. He said because of the tragic incident, he "dreads the night-time".
He says: "I'm scared to sleep half the time so I work myself solid until I pretty much drop... because it's fears of what's there when I close my eyes. I create things that didn't happen, things that didn't happen or things that could have happened. I make scenarios up in my head. Eats me away. I always think about what she'd be like now, I see her friends about - some of them have got kids, others are working, one just got married - I always wonder what she would be doing".
Following Sarah's death, her parents, Sara and Michael, went on to campaign for the implementation of what came to be known as "Sarah's Law", which would see parents notified if a paedophile moved into their area. It later emerged that Whiting was already on the Sex Offenders Register after abducting and sexually attacking another eight-year-old. The court also heard he had a previous conviction for the kidnap and indecent assault of a nine-year-old girl and was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
The documentary Sarah Payne; A Mother's Story will be broadcast tomorrow. Watch snippets from the documentary below.
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