Brothers of murdered schoolgirl speak of guilt at not saving her

The two brothers of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne have described their guilt at not being able to save their sister on the day she vanished.

Speaking in public for the first time since the eight-yearold was abducted and murdered by paedophile Roy Whiting, Luke and Lee Payne said she ran ahead of them and sister Charlotte on 1 July 2000.

In an interview for a Channel 5 documentary, they recalled how she dipped through a gap leading to a road on the edge 0 Sarah Payne disappeared while out with her brothers of the field in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, and was not seen alive again.

She was then snatched by Whiting, who is serving life imprisonment for her murder, who smiled and waved at Lee as he drove away before the siblings could raise the alarm that she was missing.

Luke Payne, who was then 12 years old, told the interviewers the thought that he could have saved her, but did not, “eats you up inside”.

Lee Payne, who was then 13 and the oldest of the four children, said: “There’s never going to be a day when you’re going to turn round and be like, ‘I’m over that now’.”