Guilty As Hell

EVIL paedophile Roy Whiting was yesterday caged for life for kidnapping and murdering Sarah Payne the second time he had abducted and abused a child.

Members of the Payne family shouted "yes" amid dramatic scenes as the jobbing builder was convicted of killing their "little princess".

And jurors who found Whiting guilty of the eight-year-old s murder after a 16-day trial were stunned to learn moments later he had struck before.

The 42-year-old loner was jailed for four years in 1995 for snatching a nine-year-old girl off the street and molesting her.

On that occasion, he spared his victim s life but the conviction was withheld from the jury in case it denied him a fair trial.

But the nine men and three women rejected his claims of innocence after considering a "compelling jigsaw" of forensic and circumstantial evidence.

Sentencing Whiting, Mr Justice Curtis said he would recommend he was never released from prison.

Whiting strangled or suffocated Sarah after abducting her last July as she left a field in Kingston Gorse, where she had been playing with her siblings, Lee, then 13, Luke, 11, and five-year-old Charlotte.

For all the trial details and background, see the Herald, December 13.