I didn't kill Sarah

CROSS-examined by prosecutor Timothy Langdale QC, Roy Whiting repeated he had nothing to do with Sarah Payne's disappearance.

Whiting claimed when police visited his home the day after Sarah vanished, he had "a memory blank" about what he had been doing the previous day.

He also accused officers of "harassing" him.

Mr Langdale said: "When two policemen came to your flat at about 9.20pm in the evening, on Sunday, July 2, and told you an eight-year-old girl had gone missing in Kingston Gorse the previous evening, no doubt you were very anxious to do whatever you could to assist the police?" Whiting replied: "Yes."

Mr Langdale continued: "And you realise that one of the ways in which you could assist the police was to make sure they could eliminate you from their enquiries?" He answered: "Yes."

Mr Langdale continued: "And you knew, of course, that you had absolutely nothing to do with this little girl s disappearance at all?"

Whiting said: "Yes," and added he did not give the policemen a precise account of his movements for the previous day because he could not remember.

Mr Langdale asked: "Are you saying that on that Sunday evening you had some kind of memory blank as to where you had been on Saturday evening?"

Whiting replied: "Yes, I did not remember where I had been.

"I had a lot on my mind if I was going to move out of the area, stay in the area, change jobs I was driving on auto-pilot, not taking any notice of where I was going."

Of police questioning, Whiting said: "At the time of these questions, one was questioning, one was saying: 'Why can t you answer, it was only yesterday , they were harassing me."

Mr Langdale said: "If that is true, all you needed to say was: 'Hold on, give me chance, I will tell you , did you do that?"

Whiting answered: "No."

Roy Whiting, formerly of St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, denies the kidnap and murder of Sarah Payne. The trial continues.

For full details of the week at Whiting's trial, see the Gazette, December 6.