Whiting guilty of Sarah murder.
Roy Whiting has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of the kidnap and murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne.
He was convicted of both charges by a jury of nine men and three women at Lewes Crown Court, after a trial lasting almost four weeks.
There were cries of delight in the packed courtroom as the verdicts were read out on Wednesday, listened to by Sarah's parents and brothers Lee and Luke.
As soon as the unanimous verdicts were declared, the court heard details of Whiting's previous conviction for the kidnap and indecent assault of a nine-year-old girl in 1995.
Trial judge Mr Justice Richard Curtis said it was a rare case when he would recommend that a life sentence should mean life.
Outside court Sarah's parents Sara and Michael said: "This doesn't make us happy but justice has been done.
"Sarah can rest in peace now."
'Absolute menace'
They also called on the government to change the law to ensure it does not happen again.
Sarah went missing on 1 July last year after playing near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex. Her naked body was found 16 days later.
Whiting, 42, formerly of St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, had denied having anything to do with her.
But Mr Justice Curtis said he believed Whiting was "an evil man" and "a cunning and glib liar".
"You are and will remain an absolute menace to any little girl," he told Whiting.
"You're every parent's and grandparent's nightmare come true.
"I recommend you be kept in prison for the rest of your life so that no further child can be added to the list of your victims."
Sarah's mother Sara said: "Let's make sure this stops happening time and time again.
"People are being let out of prison when everybody concerned knows that this is going to happen again."
Abnormal desires
The judge said a psychiatrist who saw Whiting after his 1995 attack warned he was a high risk repeat offender.
He said Sarah's tragic and appalling murder had proved the psychiatrist right.
"It is important in ordinary life that children are allowed to have some freedom by their parents and others to learn self-reliance and enjoy their childhood... You exploited this for your own abnormal sexual desires."
The judge said he was satisfied Whiting was out hunting for children and said he had turned his van into an "moving prison".
During the trial, prosecuting lawyer Timothy Langdale QC told the jury there was "compelling" evidence against Whiting.
Snatched
A strand of Sarah's hair had been found on Whiting's sweatshirt, and fibres from his van were found on her hair and shoe.
Items found by police in Whiting's van included a length of rope, two plastic ties, a knife and a bottle of baby oil.
The van also contained a receipt for diesel from a garage near the spot where Sarah's body was found, close to the A29 near Pulborough.
Whiting had lied about his movements to police, Mr Langdale said, as he had denied being anywhere near the scene.
Mr Langdale questioned three scratch marks found on Whiting.
And he said Whiting had been seen grinning and driving off just as Sarah's brothers were looking for her.
Whiting took the stand himself for two days during the trial.
He told the court he had changed doors on the back of his van and stripped out wood panelling on the same day as Sarah was kidnapped.
But he told the jury: "It wasn't me."
'On the prowl'
Sarah's parents, Sara and Michael Payne, had been present for most of the trial.
Mr Langdale told the jury Sarah was snatched after a day out with her family.
Sarah, her brothers Lee, 13, Luke, 11, and her five-year-old sister, Charlotte, had separated from their parents and grandparents after a walk to the seaside, he said.
They were playing in a nearby cornfield when Sarah slipped through a hedge into a country lane.
Mr Langdale said Whiting, who had been driving around "on the prowl" for a young child or children, then grabbed her.
Lewes Crown Court is a Crown Court in Lewes, East Sussex, England. It is housed in the Lewes Combined Court Centre which it shares with Lewes County Court in the Lewes High Street. The Portland stone building, originally established as East Sussex County Hall, was designed by John Johnson and built between 1808 and 1812.
It is the first tier Crown Court Centre for the whole of Sussex and is presided over by a Circuit Judge, known as the Resident Judge. The present Resident Judge is Her Honour Judge Shani Barnes who took over from His Honour Judge Richard Brown DL (The first Honorary Recorder of Brighton and Hove and a Senior Circuit Judge) on his retirement in 2013. There are 4 Crown courts at Lewes, 4 at Hove and 2 in Brighton, making it a 10 Crown court centre. There are about 10 full-time Circuit Judges based at the Centre, and they are assisted from time to time by part-time Judges, known as Recorders.
A number of very high profile criminal trials have taken place at Lewes including the case of Roy Whiting (convicted of the murder of Sarah Payne), Graham Coutts (convicted of the murder of schoolteacher Jane Longhurst), Andrew Wragg (manslaughter of a seriously ill child of the family) These follow on from other notorious murder trials in the past, including serial killer John George Haigh.
In April 2011 the New Sussex Opera Group were permitted to perform the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Trial by Jury in Court number one. The organiser, and one of the star performers, was former Judge Michael Kennedy QC.
- 1920: The "Crumbles Murder case" in which Jack Field and William Thomas were convicted of the murder of Irene Munro.
- 1930: The trial of Sidney Harry Fox for the murder of his mother for insurance money.
- 1934: The acquittal of Tony Mancini for the "Brighton Trunk Murder" of Violet Kaye, to which he later confessed.
- 1949: John George Haigh, the "acid bath murderer".
- 1956: John Bodkin Adams, previously acquitted of murder at the Old Bailey, was tried at Lewes for collateral offences.
- 2001: Roy Whiting was tried and convicted of the murder of Sarah Payne.
- 2004: Graham Coutts was tried and convicted of the murder of schoolteacher Jane Longhurst.
- 2004: Andrew Wragg was acquitted of murdering his son and sentenced to two years for manslaughter.
- 2009: Martin and Nathan Winter, and Alpha Fireworks Ltd were found guilty of the manslaughter of two East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service firefighters in the 2006 Marlie Farm Fireworks Explosion.
- 2010 Mrs Bridget Kathleen Gilderdale was acquitted of the attempted murder of her daughter, Lynn Gilderdale (an ME sufferer)