Who was Sarah Payne, what happened to her and what is Sarah’s Law?
A new documentary about tragic schoolgirl Sarah Payne, who was abducted and murdered in 2000, is set to retrace her final moments in heartbreaking scenes.
A preview of the show Sarah Payne: The Untold Story, presenter Susanna Reid and Sarah’s mother Sara Payne are seen visiting the place where she was snatched by sex offender Roy Whiting.
The crime prompted a campaign for the introduction of Sarah’s Law, which was backed up by Sarah’s parents, which would allow parents with young children to find out if a child sex offender was living in their area.
Here’s what you need to know about Sarah Payne and Sarah’s Law.
Who was Sarah Payne and what happened to her?
Sarah Payne was an eight-year-old schoolgirl from Hersham in Surrey, who disappeared on the evening of 1 July 2000 from a cornfield near the home of her paternal grandparents in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, where she and her siblings – Lee, 13, Luke, 12 and six-year-old Charlotte – had been playing.
Her body was found on 17 July in a field near Pulborough, around 15 miles from where she had last been seen, following an extensive search of the area by both police officers and volunteers, as well as her family making daily appeals on TV.
Roy Whiting, who at the time was serving a sentence for a driving offence and car theft, was charged with the abduction and murder of Sarah in February 2001.
He was convicted in December of that year and was sentence to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 50 years, which was later reduced to 40 on appeal.
Sara Payne, now 50, published a book in 2017 entitled Letters To Sarah, consisting of letters she wrote to her daughter – who would now have been 27.
She told The Sun at the time that she still talks to Sarah in her head almost every day, explaining: ‘It helps me feel closer to her.
‘Writing letters to her has helped to make up in a small way for the teenage years and beyond that I didn’t get with her, it has made her more real.’
What is Sarah’s Law?
Sarah’s Law was campaigned for by newspaper the News Of The World, with Sara Payne and Sarah’s late father Michael backing the cause.
It emerged after Roy Whiting was convicted of Sarah Payne’s murder that he had a previous conviction for abducting and sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl – for which he served four years in prison – and Sara and Michael argued at the time that had they known this it could have saved Sarah’s life.
The law, which is also known as the Child Sex Offencer Disclosure Scheme, and allows parents with young children to formally ask the police if someone who has access to a child has a criminal record for child sex offences.
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If a person with access to a child does have any convictions for sex offences against children, the information will be given to the child’s immediate care givers i.e a parent or guardian.
The law is similar in nature to Megan’s Law in the US, which was introduced there following the murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka by her neighbour in 1994.
It was piloted in four areas of England and Wales in September 2008 before being extended to the whole of England and Wales in 2011.
Sarah Payne: The Untold Story is on ITV on Thursday night at 9pm.
Arrow MORE: ‘Suicide bomber’ lived in the former home of Sarah Payne killer Roy Whiting
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- Roy Whiting
- Sarah Payne
- Susanna Reid
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