On July 1st this little 8 year old girl, Sarah Payne, was abducted after a happy time playing with her sister and two brothers in a sleepy and beautiful Sussex village...... Sarah was never to return to her adoring family .... Her parents Sara and Michael tell their story here, in the hopes that it will encourage us all to fight for a change in the law regarding paedophiles. It is a very heartbreaking story but please read it, for Sarah and her family.
AT LEAST WE GOT SARAH BACK... TO GO ON HOPING WOULD DESTROY US......
As soon as the two officers entered the house, a cold numbness swept over Sara Payne. The Paynes had been in constant touch with Sussex police since their little girl vanished, but this was different.
"I knew, sighs Mum, Sara, I knew this was it. It was about 10 o'clock in the morning nd my husband Michael was at the shops with his Dad, Terry. The police started to say they had got something to tell me, but I stopped them. I said whatever it was I want Michael to be here with me. We called him on the mobile and he came home.
There was a terrible wait. Then we went into the garden as the children were around, and they said they had found a body. They couldn't say it was Sarah for sure, but there were no other little girls missing in the area. I just refused to believe it. I said it couldn't be her. It couldn't be true. I had hoped for so long she was alive. I could not accept the body they had found was Sarah."
Tragically, brother Lee, 13, was in the sitting room and heard the news break on television before his parents were able to tell him.
Dad Michael says, "He was very angry, very upset that he had to hear it that way. He is a deep boy and it was just unfortunate that within five minutes of us being told, it was on the news."
Sarah and Michael, both 31, had to explain to their other children, Luke, 11, and Charlotte, 5, that Sarah had been found dead.
"Although I refused to believe it myself, I had to tell the children it was her," says Sara. "I couldn't let them go on hoping, it just wouldn't be fair."
"At first I didn't break down, I just felt sick and numb. I still kept hoping it wasn't her, whereas Michael had prepared himself more." He says, "I had got myself mentally more prepared for this moment. I thought we might never see her again and I tried to prepare Sara too, saying: 'You know she may not be coming home. We may not be seeing Sarah again.' but she wouldn't have it."
The Paynes never saw 8 year old Sarahs' body as they were advised against it by police family liaison officer Sean Scott.
Sara says, "We could have gone, but Sean went for us and strongly advised us against it. It wouldn't have been our Sarah there and it would have been just too upsetting. We don't want to remember her like that."
They are grateful they have at least found her body. "You could say we got what we wanted - we found Sarah" says Sara. "We have her back. I can't imagine what it would be like to never see a child again, like the Suzy Lamplugh case, I would just go on hoping forever. It would destroy me. The police have been brilliant and keep us informed of every development, but I don't even think about how she died - that would be just too painful. It would tear me apart. That's not somewhere we want to go."
Sarah vanished on July 1st while playing with her brothers and sister near their grandparents' home at Kingston Gorse, West Sussex. Her body was found 16 days later near Pulborough.
The Paynes are still living at the grandparents' and have vowed never to return to their memory filled home in Surrey. Sara says: "We support each other and give each other space when we need it. Charlotte often just sits staring at a picture of Sarah, sometimes talking to it and will then trace her finger around the outline of her face. She sometimes thinks Sarah is still coming home. Luke puts things into letters. Every few days he'll write the most beautiful letter to her. He finds it therapeutic. Lee is very deep. He has been busying himself helping us with the flowers and the letters we receive."
The composure of the Paynes as they gave impassioned press conferences amazed everyone. Never before had a case of a missing child grabbed the publics' imagination as much as this.
"We just had to keep doing it, it was our only hope" says Sara. "But we should never have been put through it. To think someone was out there watching our pain, knowing Sarah was dead." Sara adds: "I've cried and got angry, but I haven't actually broken down. You can't with the children - they keep you going. I don't know where I've found the strength. I've always been outspoken, but used to be shy in front of cameras. When I used to walk into the press conferences, I never saw the cameras. I just felt it was something we had to do if we were going to see Sarah again."
For 16 days, the Paynes prayed and hoped as thousands and thousands of calls poured in to Police.
Sara says: "We knew it wasn't Sarah who had been seen at that service station. She didn't say the things Sarah would have. We had taught Sarah to say, 'I'm Sarah Payne from so-and-so address' if she was asked. It just didn't sound like her."
The events of that balmy night on Saturday July 1st have been replayed in their minds a million times. Sara says,"We had been to the beach and at about 7pm we left. The kids wanted to stay, rather than walk home with us. Lee is 13 and sensible and I knew he'd see them home. We told them to stay together. We nipped to a friends' and stopped at the off-licence to get some drinks for the evening. We got back to Mikes' parents at about 8.15pm and the children were there, worried about Sarah. All four of them had left the beach to go to a cornfield and played on a rope swing. After a while Sarah fell over and wanted to go and see her Nan and went home. Lee ran after her, and Luke stayed with Charlotte. So it was Lee who went after Sarah in the end. It was literally like that - 10, 20 seconds," says Sara clicking her fingers in the air to indicate the fraction of time that Sarah was out of sight.
"Lee saw a white van go by in the lane as he ran across the field, and then he saw it pull out a few seconds later as he entered the lane. He reached the house at 8pm and expected Sarah to be there. When the grandparents said she wasn't, he thought they were joking."
From 8.15 to 9pm, Sara and Michael, his parents Lesley and Terry Payne and the three children searched high and low in the fields. They yelled and shouted, expecting Sarah to leap out any second, but it did not happen.
"Two of us went in the car while the others set off on foot," recalls Sara. "Every parent's lost a child for perhaps just five minutes and it's as if time is suspended - you expect them to suddenly appear.....We went to see if she was in the village in case she had taken a wrong turning. She wasn't, so at 9pm we called the Police. We were now seriously panicking."
Within minutes there was a Police officer at the house, followed by a van full of reinforcements. Shortly after, a helicopter took off. Sarah says:"From the moment you've called the Police, your world has changed. You don't know what time it is or what's really happening. I knew my little girl was out there somewhere so I couldn't let go and go to pieces." Michael, a paintsprayer, adds: "When the Police started the search, they advised us to stay indoors and all sorts of things were going through my mind. I remember at about 1am, a Policewoman asking: "What do you think has happened?" I said I thought someone had taken her. That was my instinct." Sara was more hopeful. "I thought she'd have gone to someone's house - we had always told the children to do that if they got lost. Knock on someones' door rather than carry on walking but don't go inside, simply ask whoever answers to call the Police, so I thought she would have wandered into someone's house and that's where she'd still be. I didn't think anyone could kill her. I thought she'd charm them, she could wind anyone round her little finger. I thought if someone has her in their arms, they wouldn't do that to her. But she didn't stand a chance, did she? You see other families on TV going through this but never imagine it will happen to you. I remember hearing about Dunblane and feeling physically sick that so many children had been killed. I followed it on the news - and here, years later, it is our family on the news.... but good news came out of Dunblane. They have tightened security at schools and changed the gun laws.
Now I am determined some good has to come out of what's happened to Sarah."
This article is reproduced from The Mirror, August 3rd, 2000
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24/03/01