'SHE JUST WALKED AWAY'
Sarah Payne mum’s harrowing 999 call revealed in ITV documentary about her daughter’s murder
THIS is the devastating moment the mum of Sarah Payne reported her eight-year-old daughter missing.
Sara Payne can be heard desperately asking for help after her little girl vanished while playing in a field with her siblings in 2000.
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Speaking to Susanna Reid in tonight's Sarah Payne: The Untold Story documentary, Sara revealed how calling emergency services made her daughter's disappearance real.
The 50-year-old mum said: "That was a really frightening thing to do.
"I did not want to pick up that phone, to make it real."
In the harrowing call, she can be heard telling police: "I've lost my eight-year-old daughter, she's been missing about an hour and three quarters now."
The 999 handler can then be heard asking what had been happening just before the little girl went missing, with Sara saying: "She was playing with her brothers and her little sister and she just walked away from them."
The family had launched a desperate search around the neighbourhood after little Sarah went missing.
And grieving mum Sara revealed how she now struggled to look back at the hope she had that her little girl would be found alive.
She said: "Sometimes I hate the hope that I had. I just had this determination she would be found. A true belief.
"I could never have the front door shut. The front door remained open – I just though 'what if she comes back and she thinks we haven't even been looking for her'."
WHAT HAPPENED TO SARAH
Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne was eight-years-old when she was abducted and murdered as she played hide and seek with her brothers in a cornfield near her grandparent's home near Kingston Gorse, West Sussex in July 2000.
After 17 days of searching her body was found in a field near Oulborough, around 15 miles from where she disappeared in Kingston Gorse.
Sarah’s brother Lee — now 30 and a father of one — was 13 when he ran to look for Sarah and saw killer Roy Whiting’s van speeding off.
Her other brother Luke, 12, and sister Charlotte, six, had already run to their grandparents’ house.
And after a month-long trial, paedophile Roy Whiting was caged for life after killing Sarah.
'HE TOOK ENOUGH'
He had pleaded not guilty, refusing to answer police questions after being arrested in the wake of Sarah's disappearance.
But he was ultimately tied to the little girl's disappearance when a single hair from Sarah was found on his red sweatshirt.
Mum Sara Payne said she had considered confronting Whiting behind bars - but had ultimately decided he was not worth it.
She said: "I can't have him take anymore than he took. He took enough that day. I won't give him anymore."
And she said she held onto the positive changes that her little girl had made to the world - including Sarah's Law that allows parents to ask police if someone with access to a child has a record for child sexual offences.
Looking over treasured pictures and home videos of her daughter, she said: "Sarah did change the world.
"I don't know how many children she's saved, but I think it's a lot."
What is Sarah's Law?
The child sex offender disclosure scheme in England and Wales (also sometimes known as "Sarah’s Law"), allows anyone to formally ask the police if someone with access to a child has a record for child sexual offences.
Police will reveal details confidentially to the person most able to protect the child (usually parents, carers or guardians) if they think it is in the child’s interests.
Following Sarah's death, the News of the World, supported by Sarah's parents, launched a campaign calling for a UK version of what is known as “Megan's Law” in the United States.
The scheme was piloted in four police areas in in 2008 and in August 2010 the Home Office announced that it would be rolled out across all 43 police areas in England and Wales.
Speaking during tonight's documentary, Sarah's siblings remembered her as a "Disney princess".
Lee said: "Sarah was very much a Disney princess, you wouldn't catch her playing in the mud.
"She was the little sister - we tended to look after her more."
But brother Luke revealed he was haunted by his last words to his sister.
He said: "Something happened, I think she fell over and Sarah wanted to go home.
"I got angry at her and I said - f*** off and go home.
"That's the last words I ever said to her."
MOST READ IN NEWS
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.
Whiting was convicted in December 2001 and is now serving 40 years for his crimes.
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