The killer of Sarah Payne told a jury how he was slashed across the face by a fellow prisoner.

Roy Whiting was an inmate at Wakefield prison when he was attacked by Rickie Tregaskis on August 4, 2002, Leeds Crown Court was told.

Whiting, 44, told the jury he was attacked as he returned from filling up his flask with hot water on D wing of the jail. The court was told a razor blade was probably used in the attack.

Whiting said: "I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, movement and felt a sharp stinging pain."

He put his hand to the right side of his face and felt blood.

He said: "As soon as I felt the stinging against my face, I put my hand up and I was covered in blood."

Dressed in a grey top and jeans and with dark shoulder-length hair, Whiting said he never saw his attacker.

Whiting was in cell number seven, while Tregaskis was housed just a few doors down in cell 11.

Whiting described to the jury how he walked past a man who had been standing against some railings on the afternoon of August 4, 2002. As he walked back with his flask, he was attacked.

Tregaskis, 35, denies wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Adrian Waterman, prosecuting, said Whiting had been convicted of the murder of Sarah Payne.

Sarah disappeared near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, in July 2001. Her body was found 17 days later.

He told the jury: "It is the Crown's case Rickie Tregaskis, also an inmate of Wakefield, took it upon himself to exact his own personal retribution upon Roy Whiting - not because he had any connection with Sarah Payne or her family but because he hated what he had done."

Christopher Tehrani, for Tregaskis, asked Whiting: "You are serving a life sentence for murder?

"You kidnapped and killed Sarah Payne?"

"Correct," Whiting replied.

The trial continues.