Recently, the mum of murdered Sarah Payne opened up about her daughter’s tragic death. Now, Sarah’s brothers - who were with her at the time of her abduction - have spoken about their ordeal publicly for the first time.
Luke and Lee Payne, along with their younger sister Charlotte, were playing with eight-year-old Sarah in a cornfield near their grandparents’ home when she was snatched by paedophile Roy Whiting, on July 1, 2000.
Sarah had been out of their sight momentarily, and they believed she was hiding from them.
Luke, who was 12 at the time, explained the devastating effect Sarah’s abduction had on him.
He said: “I’m scared to sleep at night half the time, so I work myself solid until I pretty much drop. It’s fear of what’s there when I close my eyes.
“I create things that didn’t happen, or things that could have happened.
#SarahPayne; A Mother’s Story, Wed 19 July, 9pm Channel 5https://t.co/QFkQapQelY via @Femail
— Gee_McK (@Gee_McK) July 17, 2017
"I make scenarios up in my head. It just eats me away, so I don’t get a lot of sleep, really.
“I dread the night time, because it’s just you and your thoughts - they are all there, and it’s so real.”
Lee, who was 13 at the time, saw Whiting drive away in a white van, not knowing Sarah was inside.
“I was literally 30 seconds behind her. Whiting was driving up the road in his van and gave me a wave as he went. He gave quite a big smile.The way he smiled was very uneasy, it didn’t make me feel comfortable at all.
“When it comes to feeling guilt about the situation, I did beat myself up about it.
“Thinking that if I’d maybe run faster, or not run through the corn, I might have caught up with her; thinking that if I’d had my head on that day, realised she was in the back of that van…”
Sarah Payne's brothers reveal agony of witnessing her abductionhttps://t.co/sY2QxSEXiR pic.twitter.com/evVBt464yK
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) July 17, 2017
Lee, now 30, explains how a simple accident had led to Sarah deciding to leave the field and head back towards their grandparents’ house.
He said: “Sarah had fallen over and she decided she wanted to go home, so she stormed off. I decided to cut across the corn to chase her, to head her off. She beat me out of the field, walked around the road, which is 100 metres if that. By the time I was there, she was gone.”
Two weeks later, Sarah’s body was found in a field 15 miles away.
After her death, her mum Sara campaigned for the law to be changed to allow parents to ask the police whether someone with access to their child had a record of child sexual abuse. In 2011, Sarah’s Law was introduced in England and Wales.
Luke said: “I remember her as my sister, but it’s better to remember her for putting Sarah’s Law across.
“That legacy she left has made her special - not just to me, but to everybody else in the world."
