A child murder that shook the country, and the tragic toll on the family
SARAH PAYNE was playing with her brothers and sisters in a cornfield on a summer’s day, when in a split second everything changed.
Having walked away from the others for a mere moment, the little eight-year-old was snatched by a man driving past in a van and never seen again.
“She got to the corner of the field and literally disappeared,” says Sarah’s mother Sara.
Her body was discovered two weeks after her abduction, and her killer Roy Whiting was caught and jailed for life.
“I was in complete denial and I wouldn’t accept it,” says Sara.
But that was not the end of the story.
This harrowing documentary interviews Sara, as well as Sarah’s brothers Luke and Lee and sister Charlotte, as they reveal the heartbreak that followed.
From the moment Sara called the police to report her daughter missing, right through to the search and subsequent murder investigation, then the court case and conviction, this is a devastating account of a crime that shocked the nation.
Sara also talks about how she found the courage to campaign for new legislation—which became known as Sarah’s Law—in an attempt to keep other children safe.
But perhaps the most gut-wrenching moments to watch are the interviews with Sarah’s brothers.
Luke, who was just 11 at the time, was just seconds behind Sarah when she was snatched and has been wracked with guilt ever since that he couldn’t save her.
Choked up with emotion, Luke – who confesses he still struggles to sleep – says: “I blamed myself for years, thinking I could have stopped it. It just eats you up inside.”