'I'M EXORCISING GHOSTS'
Sarah Payne’s mum makes emotional ‘final visit’ to spot where murdered schoolgirl was abducted as she opens up to Susanna Reid
SARAH Payne's mum has made an emotional "final" visit to the spot where her daughter was abducted before being murdered nearly 20 years ago.
Sara Payne, 50, said she wanted to "exorcise ghosts" to try and recover from the murder of the eight-year-old schoolgirl, who was killed in July, 2000.
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Paedophile Roy Whiting was caged for life after killing Sarah, who was abducted near Kingston Gorse, West Sussex.
Sara spoke as part of an ITV documentary at the beach near where her daughter was snatched for Sarah Payne: The Untold Story, which airs tonight.
Sara said: “If I close my eyes I can see her and I can hear her and see her running around just shouting.
“The last thing I remember is Sarah just waving and she was like ‘go, go, go... we’ll see you at home’.”
'IF I CLOSE MY EYES I CAN SEE HER'
The hour-long documentary features interviews with Sara and her family nearly 20 years on from Sarah's murder.
Sara said it will probably be the last time she visits the beach where Sarah had been playing before Whiting took her.
Speaking to presenter Susanna Reid , she said her children "always felt safe here".
At one point, Sara says: "If I close my eyes I can see her and I can hear her and see her running around just shouting.
“The last thing I remember is Sarah just waving and she was like ‘go, go, go... we’ll see you at home’.”
It was very difficult to do, but it needed to be done. It was like exorcising ghosts. It was something I did once, I probably won’t do that again
Sara Payne on returning to where Sarah was abducted
Sarah's brother Lee — now 32 — was 13 when he ran to look for Sarah and saw Whiting's van speeding off.
Her other brother Luke, 12, and sister Charlotte, six, had already run to their grandparents' house.
Sara said: "My other children had barely lived. I can’t even begin to imagine being that age and trying to cope with media attention, campaign attention, all your friends seeing things and having friends’ family talking about you.
"They had this massive smack of reality".
In a previous interview she said: "They weren't ready for the atrocities but they got them anyway.
"The moment they learned Sarah was missing they turned from boys into men and in Charlotte's case it made her a woman in an instant."
Sara's heart-wrenching return to the beach came 19 years after Sarah was abducted.
Sara told The Mirror: “I don’t normally put my heart on my sleeve like that.
“It was very difficult to do but it needed to be done. It was like exorcising ghosts. It was something I did once, I probably won’t do that again.
“It is very painful but every now and then you need to touch on stuff to find out where you are.
“You never know how far you have come until you look behind you.
LOCK OF SARAH'S HAIR
"We’ve never been able to really tell people how close she was to us, or to the family, distance-wise, and I was hoping we could really show that this time and I think we managed it.”
She keeps a lock of Sarah's hair to comfort her.
After the little girl's killing, her family campaigned for Sarah's Law, a child sex offender disclosure scheme.
Sarah's parents argued at the time that knowledge of his conviction could have prevented their child's death.
Sarah Payne's family open up about losing her after she was murdered in 2000
They pushed for a change in law which became Sarah's Law.
Sarah's Law allows parents, carers and guardians to ask police if someone in contact with a child has a history of offending.
It was used in 266 cases where offenders were identified last year, a Sun survey of police forces found.
But the true figure is likely to be nearer 500 as 19 out of 43 forces, including two of the biggest, Greater Manchester and West Midlands, refused to respond.
Whiting had already been imprisoned for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old before murdering Sarah.
The monster was a threat and a risk but local families were completely unaware.
After 17 days of searching Sarah's body was found in a field about 15 miles from where she disappeared in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex.
Whiting was convicted in December 2001 and is now serving 40 years for his crimes. He already had a conviction for abducting and indecently assaulting another little girl.
Sara said: “It didn’t matter who was with her that day, there was no chance of saving her. He did what he did, and he was going to do what he did, no matter what.
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“If it hadn’t been Sarah it would have been somebody else that day, and in some ways, a family that can survive or has survived it.
"I think the ultimate message of the documentary is that we have survived."
Sarah Payne: The Untold Story is on ITV on Thursday at 9pm.
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