Expert finds strong Sarah link to murder accused's van, court told

An independent forensic report reinforced crucial links between British schoolgirl Sarah Payne and her alleged killer, a court has heard.

Scientist Roger Robson was asked by the police to compare a number of fibres found in Roy Whiting's van to those traced in clumps of Sarah's hair discovered at the spot where her body was found.

Whiting, 42, formerly of Littlehampton, West Sussex, denies kidnapping and murdering eight-year-old Sarah.

Mr Robson was also asked to examine fibres found on one of Sarah's black shoes, the only item of the youngster's clothing ever found by police.

Mr Robson told Lewes Crown Court he found more evidence that a fibre found in Sarah's hair matched fibres from socks taken from Whiting's Fiat Ducato van. He also discovered a closer match between a fibre on Sarah's shoe and fibres in a clown patterned curtain also seized from the defendant's van.

Mr Robson told the court: "I came to the same conclusions as Mr Chapman and I felt I found something that slightly improved the association. It was based on the instruments and one specific fibre type I found on the socks and in the hair."

"I found more characteristics than Mr Chapman found and the more characteristics you find, the greater the chance the fibres originated from the same source."

Detective Sergeant Roger Crowley helped gather potential DNA evidence from the Payne family home in Surrey in the days after Sarah was snatched. The court heard yesterday how human hairs became stuck to the adhesive seals on the outer edge of bags used to store hair brushes taken as evidence.

Sally O'Neill, defending Whiting, later said it could not be ruled out that one of the hairs could have been transferred to a red sweatshirt from Whiting's van on which, in a crucial development in the investigation, police found a single strand of Sarah's hair. The chances of the hair not being Sarah's was one in a billion, the court heard.

But today Mr Crowley said it was not possible for a hair to penetrate an exhibit bag, such as the one used to store the sweatshirt.