9:19am Sunday 21st March 2010
By Siobhan Ryan
The man convicted of murdering schoolgirl Sarah Payne was found with pictures of her in his cell.
Roy Whiting, 51, had newspaper and magazine cuttings about the eight-year-old and other young girls in his cell at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire.
The disturbing discovery was made during a routine search and detailed in a prison report seen by a national newspaper.
The newspaper quoted the 2009 report as saying: "It is of serious concern that the security information indicates hidden newspaper cuttings of Mr Whiting's victim and young girls were discovered during a cell search.
"It appears that his interest in young girls continues to be evident within the prison environment."
The report said that Whiting refused to accept responsibility for Sarah's murder. He killed her in 2000.
She vanished while playing with her brothers and sister in a field near her grandparents' house in Littlehampton.
Search teams looked for 16 days before her body was found 12 miles away.
After Whiting was convicted, it emerged that he had kidnapped and sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl five years earlier.
Since the murder, her mother, Sara Payne, has campaigned tirelessly for victims' rights and for a change in the law to publicise where sex offenders live.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: "We don't comment on individual cases.
"Where inappropriate materials are found in prisoners' cells they are immediately removed and the prisoner may be subject to disciplinary proceedings.
"Behaviour in prison is one of the factors considered by the Parole Board in their decision-making."
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