Sarah Payne's mother was today due to take the witness stand to talk about the last moments she spent with her daughter.

Sara Payne, 32, will be the first witness for the prosecution in the trial of Roy Whiting, who is charged with the eight-year-old schoolgirl's kidnap and murder.

Sarah's brother Lee, 14, the last person known to have seen her alive before she went missing from a field in Kingston Gorse, near Ferring, on July 1 last year, was due to give evidence through a video link.

Whiting, 42, formerly of St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, denies both charges.

Opening the case for the prosecution yesterday, Timothy Langdale told Lewes Crown Court there was "compelling evidence" of his guilt.

The jury was told how, on his arrest on the day after Sarah disappeared, Whiting told police he had spent the previous evening at a funfair in Hove before returning home to Littlehampton, where he stayed.

But Mr Langdale said a till receipt found in the cab of Whiting's battered Fiat van showed he had bought petrol at around 9.50pm that night from Buck Barn Garage, close to the field on the A29 at Pulborough where Sarah's naked body was found in a shallow grave 16 days later.

He said: "He was not telling the truth."

The court was told two detectives had visited Whiting's home at 7.45pm on July 2. There was no response so they returned 90 minutes later.

Mr Langdale said Whiting invited the officers inside and they carried out a search of his flat. It was then he gave them his account of his movements the previous evening.

The detectives left but parked their car nearby and kept watch.

Five minutes later Whiting was spotted going to a white van.

He was seen "messing about" with the rear doors and passenger door before going back inside.

Twenty minutes later he reappeared, got into the driver's seat and tried to start the van, the court heard.

He was arrested on suspicion of abducting Sarah.

Mr Langdale said Whiting refused to make any comment during four hours of interviews held over the next three days.

Sitting next to his father in the public gallery, Sarah's father, Michael, listened with his head bowed and eyes closed as Mr Langdale went on to tell the court how a pathologist who examined Sarah's body concluded she had met a "violent death".

He said Dr Djurovic could not ascertain the precise cause of death but concluded the overall picture indicated it was a "sexually motivated homicide".

Mr Langdale told the court that although there was no evidence of sexual abuse, it could not be ruled out because of the effects of 16 days of exposure to the elements.

The jury of five men and seven women was told the only piece of Sarah's clothing ever located was one of her shoes.

It was spotted on July 3 by Deborah Bray on the B2139 near crossroads at Coolham.

She thought nothing of it until Sarah's body was discovered nearby. She led police back to the scene.

Mr Langdale said: "Scientific examination of that shoe and, in particular, the fibres that had stuck to the Velcro strap reveal evidence that linked it to items found in Roy Whiting's van."

Mr Langdale concluded yesterday's hearing by alleging Whiting had made several significant changes to his white van in a bid to erase the "tell-tale signs of Sarah's body".

He told the court how Whiting bought the F-registration Ducatto van for £400 on June 25, eight days before he was arrested.

Former owner Dean Fuller told police when he had sold the vehicle to Whiting the rear doors were without windows and the body of the van was panelled with wood.

When Lee Payne spotted a white van at the scene of his sister's disappearance on July 1 he told police he could recall seeing solid rear doors without windows.

But when police arrived at Whiting's flat the van's rear doors had been replaced with two new doors with windows which, it emerged, had been bought a few days before from a man in Poole for £10.

Officers also noticed the wooden panelling had been removed.

Mr Langdale told the jury: "You may conclude that the work on the van, including changing of the doors and removing of the wood, was done after Sarah's death by Roy Whiting who may have hoped changing the appearance of the van and getting rid of the lining may have got rid of tell-tale signs of Sarah's presence."

Mr Langdale gave details of how farm labourer Luke Coleman found Sarah's body 17 days after her disappearance.

Mr Coleman was working in a field beside the A29 near Pulborough when he came across what he at first thought was a dead animal at the side of the field.

Mr Langdale said: "To his horror, he realised it was the body of a child and it was Sarah's body.

"It had been partially pulled out of the shallow hole in which her murderer had put her dead body.

"Parts of her body were missing, having been torn off by animals.

"There is scientific evidence to say that her body had been buried there soon after her abduction.

"It's the prosecution's case that Sarah must have been killed quite soon after her abduction and buried, no doubt, that very night in that field."

The trial continues.

November 15, 2001