The jury in the trial of Roy Whiting will not visit the scene where Sarah Payne was abducted.

Mr Justice Richard Curtis refused an application by the jury to visit the spot in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, where Sarah was abducted on July 1 last year.

He said: "It is impossible to recreate any useful situation 18 months after it occurred."

But Justice Curtis told the jury they were entitled to watch film of the field and neighbouring country lanes taken in the days after she vanished.

Whiting, 42, formerly of St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, denies kidnapping and murdering Sarah.

In today's proceedings, the court heard how Sarah's brother, Lee, had failed to pick out her alleged killer in an identity parade.

Lee Payne was asked to pick out the man he saw driving a white van as he searched for Sarah after she had vanished near her grandparents' home.

Lee, 13 at the time, failed to pick out Whiting.

The identity parade was held on July 5. The court heard earlier in the trial how Whiting had changed his appearance on July 2, according to a man who knew him and who bumped into him outside his Littlehampton flat.

Builder Terence Heath said Whiting appeared "steam-cleaned", and had lost his usual scruffy appearance.

On day 12 of the trial, the jury heard several admissions from Crispin Aylett, junior counsel for the prosecution Mr Aylett said that in the days after Whiting's first arrest, he was placed under "discreet observation" by the police.

He said: "At no time prior to the discovery of Sarah's body was the defendant seen to go anywhere near the Pulborough area."

The eight-year-old was found naked in a shallow grave close to the A29 road in Pulborough on July 17.

In another admission between the prosecution and defence, the jury was told that there had been a funfair in Hove on the night Sarah was snatched.

Whiting told police he had been to a fair in Hove when questioned about his movements on evening of July 1 last year.

Mud samples taken from Whiting's van and clothes were analysed but found not to match samples taken from the burial site.

Police also looked for oil on the track leading to the spot where Sarah was dumped. None was found. The court has heard how Whiting's Fiat Ducato van had an oil leak.

The trial continues.

3 December 2001