Sarah Payne's killer to serve at least 50 years

Sarah Payne's killer, Roy Whiting, will be held in jail for at least 50 years.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has ruled he must serve half a century before being eligible for parole.

The decision effectively means Whiting, 43, will die in jail.

The news was welcomed by Sarah's mother, Sara, who feared he would be freed within 20 years.

"We can finally step out of his shadow now," she told the News of the World. "When we told the children the news there were big smiles from the boys."

Whiting, a mechanic from Littlehampton, West Sussex, is locked up in maximum security Wakefield Prison after being jailed last December.

He murdered Sarah after snatching her from a cornfield near her grandparents' house in Kingston Gorse, west Sussex.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The Home Secretary has set his tariff for 50 years.

"It is entirely consistent with recent decisions to set tariffs of 50 years for other offenders convicted of the abduction and murder of young children in comparable circumstances."

However, it is not clear if any other offender has been set a 50-year tariff.