'Sarah's killer drove off grinning'

As Sarah's brother Lee watched, unaware that his eight-year-old sister had been abducted, the van driver waved at him and

smiled as he drove away, the jury was told on the first day of the trial.

Roy Whiting had been "on the prowl" looking for victims, said Timothy Langdale QC as he opened the prosecution case at Lewes Crown Court.

Mr Langdale said detectives had built up a "compelling dossier of evidence" to prove that Whiting kidnapped and murdered Sarah. One of her shoes had been forensically linked to items in Whiting's van. The items, including clothing and an old curtain, were "of the greatest possible significance".

Lee Payne, then aged 13, had described the van driver as "looking scruffy, not having shaved for a while, dirty hair with bits of grey, and dirt on his face, as if he had walked through a bush".

Whiting, 42, of Littlehampton, pleads not guilty to the kidnap and murder of Sarah in July last year. She had been seized in daylight from a country lane as she played with her two brothers and her sister in a cornfield at Kingston Gorse on the West Sussex coast.

After one of the biggest police searches of recent times, her naked body was discovered two weeks later in a field off the A29 near Pulborough, 12 miles away. The court was told that she had been killed and buried in a shallow hole on the night she had been abducted.

Her remains were discovered by a farm labourer. They were only partially concealed, having been disturbed by animals.

The jury of seven women and five men heard that Sarah's parents, Sara and Michael, had taken the family to stay with his parents Terry and Lesley on the coast and the four children - Sarah, Lee, Luke, then 11, and Charlotte, five, had been playing on the beach and then in a cornfield.

The field was a favourite spot, an unofficial play area with a rope swing and logs.

As the Payne children made their way there from the beach they played a game which involved the girls hiding in the corn, and the boys, with the family dog, coming to find them.

"At some stage Sarah got a bang on the head or nose as a result of Lee either pushing her or knocking into her," said Mr Langdale. He said she was upset for a while and decided to make her own way back to her grandparents' house.

Luke told her to wait but she disappeared through the gap in the hedge. "That was the last anybody saw of her alive," said Mr Langdale. As Lee looked for her he noticed a white van and, jogging off towards his grandparents' home, he saw the van again coming back, said Mr Langdale.

"It was in a hurry, the wheels were spinning as he described it, it was larger than a Transit with no windows in its back or sides and no markings," said Mr Langdale. "As the van passed Lee the driver grinned and smiled at him and gave him a wave.

"That driver of the van was Roy Whiting and Sarah was already in that van, having been picked up or snatched."

Whoever had taken Sarah had been in the area for a purpose and had probably turned the van around because they knew that a barrier at the end of the road would have blocked an escape, the court heard.

One of Sarah's shoes, probably thrown out of the killer's vehicle as he drove her to her grave, was forensically linked to items in Whiting's van, the court heard.

The shoe was discovered by a motorist on the verge of the B2139 at Coolham between Kingston Gorse and the field near Pulborough where her body was discovered, the jury was told.

It was identified by her mother as identical to a shoe she had worn on the day she was abducted, which was supported by scientific tests. Mr Langdale said: "Fibres stuck to the Velcro strap of the shoe revealed evidence that linked that shoe to Whiting, specifically to items found in his van.

"It may well be that it was chucked out of the vehicle of the person who abducted and killed Sarah as it travelled along the road. It was the only item recovered of Sarah's clothing."

Whiting, who owned a white Fiat Ducato van, was arrested within 24 hours of Sarah's abduction and lied to detectives about his whereabouts, the court heard. He claimed he had been at a Hove funfair until 8.30pm then drove back to his flat in Littlehampton, where he stayed for the rest of the evening.

However, in his van police found a receipt, timed at 10pm the same evening, from a garage near Coolham and Pulborough. Whiting was later released pending further inquiries.

The jury was told that Sarah's body had lain in the ground for too long to pinpoint precisely the cause of death.

Her body showed no signs of external or internal injuries before her death and no " pathological evidence of a sexual assault, although the possibility of some interference cannot be excluded".

However, pathologist Dr Vesna Djurovic concluded that there was "no doubt she met a violent death and the overall pattern indicates it was a sexually motivated homicide".

The pathologist suggested that it was "most likely" Sarah had died of asphyxiation, possibly caused by a broad and soft ligature around the neck or an armlock or just manual strangulation, all of which may not have left any significant injuries.

When police seized Whiting's Fiat van they found the rear doors had windows - at odds with the description of a van given by Sarah's brother. However, police had discovered that Whiting had acquired these doors as replacements a few days earlier.

"It is the prosecution case that Whiting on that Saturday was driving about in this van with the original doors which had no windows, but after the event put on the doors which had windows," said Mr Langdale.

He said certain items found in Whiting's van were "of the greatest possible significance in this case". They included clothing and an old curtain.

After his initial arrest Whiting was held by detectives for three days and underwent four hours of police interviews but chose to say nothing.

The case continues.