The man accused of murdering Sarah Payne started shaking and sweating when challenged after her disappearance, detectives told the jury.

Roy Whiting was described as "evasive" by detectives who visited him at his home on July 2, last year, the day after the eight-year-old schoolgirl disappeared from a cornfield near her grandparents' home, in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton.

Whiting, a jobbing builder, insisted he knew nothing about the schoolgirl's whereabouts and denied he had snatched her from the field.

He repeatedly changed his story about items he had earlier removed from the van, the jury at Lewes Crown Court was told yesterday.

He told officers he had spent the evening of Sarah's disappearance at a funfair in Hove before driving home, having a bath and going to bed.

But shortly after giving this account to a police officer, a till receipt from a petrol station was found in his van which placed him just a few miles from where Sarah's body was found 16 days later.

On day five of the trial, the jury heard accounts from police officers who had visited Whiting's flat in St Augustine Road, as a massive search for Sarah was getting underway.

Detective Sergeant Steven Wagstaff told how he questioned Whiting outside the flat, having seen him remove items from his parked van.

Reading from his notebook, he told the court: "I said to him, 'Roy, I'm going to be totally up-front with you. About an hour ago, two officers visited you and asked about your movements. You were evasive and, as such, they watched your property after they left.

"They have seen you go over to your van and remove items. What were they?'

"Whiting replied, 'Tools, a tool set'. I then said, 'I've been told they looked like clothes'.

"Whiting replied, 'Socks - it wasn't tools, it was socks'."

Det Sgt Wagstaff told the court: "He was shaking and he was sweating. I replied, 'Roy, you've given two different explanations for something that happened only an hour ago. What was the item you removed?

"He said, 'It was a shirt. I've put it in my drawer'."

PC Chris Saunders accompanied Whiting to his flat, where he was shown a black T-shirt from a laundry bag.

The officer said: "The T-shirt was nothing like the one I had seen earlier.

"He took me into the bedroom and went to a chest of drawers and took out a T-shirt that was very similar to the one I had seen in the van earlier but it was neatly folded.

"I put it up to my nose and smelt it and it smelt very clean. I could smell softener or conditioner.

"Again I said to him the T-shirt was not the one I had seen earlier. He said absolutely nothing."

Under cross-examination by Sally O'Niell, defending, Det Sgt Wagstaff was asked if he had been trying to 'rattle' Whiting.

He said: "That's not the case."

The court heard Whiting was asked about the disappearance of the youngster by Detective Constable John Fahy, who sat with him in the lounge of his flat for 40 minutes before he was formally arrested.

He said Whiting had told him: "I didn't know anything about her being missing until you lot were in here earlier. It wasn't me."

Mr Fahy said: "I asked him if he understood why he was being asked and he replied, 'Yes, but it wasn't me'."

When he was being cautioned, the court heard how Detective Inspector Paul Williams said to him: "You will be interviewed at length in due course about this matter.

"I would not normally interview you at all at this stage but we are concerned for the welfare of the missing girl, Sarah.

"Can you tell me where Sarah is?"

He said Whiting replied: "No, I can't."

Whiting was taken to Chichester police station, where he arrived at about 12.30am.

Sarah's naked body was found in a shallow grave in a field off the A29 near Pulborough on July 17, by a farm labourer who was clearing weeds.

The trial continues.

November 23, 2001