Sarah Payne’s killer has sentence reduced

Roy Whiting, the murderer of schoolgirl Sarah Payne, has had his sentence reduced by 10 years by a High Court judge after an appeal.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of murdering the eight-year-old in 2001. The trial judge said that Whiting should never be freed and the then-Home Secretary David Blunkett ruled that he would have to serve at least 50 years behind bars. But the tariff has now been reduced to 40 years - meaning that he will be able to apply for parole in 2041, when he will be 82.

Whiting was not in court for the hearing, but Sarah's mother did attend. Afterwards Sara Payne said that she had been expecting to see the sentence reduced but added that it "could have been a lot worse".

Earlier she had criticised the legal aid system, which she said encouraged prisoners to bring appeals at the behest of their legal advisers.

Appearing on GMTV before the hearing at the High Court Payne said: "Law firms... go round and tell prisoners 'did you know you could be fighting on this, or this, or this?' and of course prisoners want to buck the system as much as they can.

"If you have got nothing else to do but sit in a prison cell, then you are going to do whatever you can to get out."

Payne, who has led a campaigned for a so-called 'Sarah's Law' giving parents the right to know if there was a paedophile living in their community, said that victims should get as much access to legal aid as prisoners.

Sarah was kidnapped from a field near her grandparents home in West Sussex as she played with her brothers and sister in 2000. Her body was discovered several miles away near the village of Puborough 16 days later. It is the 10th anniversary of her disappearance next month.

Whiting, who was a known paedophile and had served time in prison, was convicted of her murder a year later. He has been attacked more than once while in prison. ·