Roy Whiting thought he'd covered his tracks - but his mistakes were to land him in jail for the rest of his life.

Timothy Langdale QC opened the case for the prosecution by telling Lewes Crown Court there was "compelling evidence" against Whiting.

His described how a happy family outing to the South Coast to see Sarah's grandparents led to the dreadful moment when they discovered Sarah had been snatched and news of the discovery of her naked body in a shallow grave 16 days later.

Whiting went to great lengths to get rid of any sign he had been in contact with the little girl.

Mindful he had been spotted by Sarah's brother, Lee, as he pulled away from the country lane in Kingston Gorse with the eight-year-old schoolgirl in his van, he ripped off its windowless back doors and replaced them with windowed doors.

He also removed the plywood lining from the back and dumped it. He then took the van to a garage in Littlehampton where he pressure-washed the inside to remove all remaining traces of Sarah's presence.

He even took the rare step of having a bath and shaving himself. Witness Terence Heath described him as looking "steam-cleaned" the night after Sarah vanished.

Builder Mr Heath, who employed Whiting and had bumped into him outside his flat, told the jury: "He was very smart and very clean, steam-cleaned.

"His general appearance was scruffy, very rough looking. This time his appearance was one of cleanliness. I had never seen him looking so smart before."

Sarah's clothes were disposed of and her body, dumped in a field near the A29 just outside Pulborough, was only found by chance when a farm worker began clearing ragwort. At first, he thought it was a dead deer.

All that was ever found of Sarah's belongings was a shoe, spotted by agricultural surveyor Deborah Bray as she drove along the B2139 Coolham road.

Yesterday Mrs Bray was awarded £500 from public funds by the judge as one of the most crucial witnesses in the case.

It took five months of painstaking detective work to finally prove Whiting had been responsible for the murder.

Whiting had fixed an oil leak in the van in the week before, in the knowledge he would soon be making a long journey.

In an innovative piece of detective work, officers scoured the scene where they believed Whiting parked when he buried Sarah's body for traces of oil but none was found.

The first piece of damning evidence was a receipt discovered by officers on the night Whiting was arrested.

Police believe he may have specifically requested a receipt for £20 worth of diesel from the Buck Barn Garage, near the grave, because he was fearful of roadblocks.

They think he could have used the document to prove where he had been on the evening if challenged by police on his way home.

The receipt also proved crucial in the case against him. It immediately smashed his alibi that he had spent the evening at his flat.

Other receipts from two DIY stores also found in the van proved he had lied about his movements the day after Sarah was killed.

He again said he had stayed at his seafront bedsit but the bills proved he had been out and about.

Despite Whiting's efforts to clean himself and his van, it was forensic evidence that provided the vital link between him and Sarah.

Forensic scientist Ray Chapman told the court that fibres from a sweatshirt and clown-patterned curtain found in Whiting's white Fiat Ducato van were discovered on Sarah's shoe.

He said the forensic investigation by his team of scientists had taken 15 months. A single blonde hair matching Sarah's DNA profile was found on a red sweatshirt in Whiting's van.

Mr Chapman said the chance of that hair not being Sarah's was "one in one billion".

But when cross-examined in the witness box, Whiting dismissed all the evidence as "coincidence".

He gave evidence in the closing days of the trial and hoped to convince the jury he was not the monster he had been painted to be.

He said: "I wanted the jury to hear what I have got to say and I wanted the judge to hear what I have got to say. I have got nothing to hide. I have told the truth."

But it was an unconvincing performance and even his defending barrister, Sally O'Neill, admitted he had not done himself any favours.

Within 90 seconds of cross-examination by Mr Langdale he contradicted himself, lied and failed to answer questions.

During the following five hours he backtracked, feigned forgetfulness, lied and lied again.

Finally, entirely ostracising the jury, he cracked by showing signs of aggression as he snapped back at questions he was unable to answer.

Whiting said it was a coincidence he owned a white van matching the one Sarah's brother Lee, then 13, described speeding along the lane where she was last seen near their grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton.

He said it was a coincidence he owned a checked shirt and white T-shirt matching the clothes Lee told police the driver was wearing.

He said it was coincidence he had spent the previous hours driving alone to a boating lake, parks and a funfair, places where, Mr Langdale had suggested, young children would be found.

He said it was a coincidence he had a detailed knowledge not only of the lanes around Kingston Gorse but also the tracks off the A29, near Pulborough, where her body was found buried 16 days after her disappearance.

He said the small scratches found on his chest and arms by a police doctor following his arrest on July 2 could have been caused when he was ripping the wooden lining from the back of the secondhand van he had bought two weeks earlier for £400.

He said he had used the bottle of Johnson's baby oil found in the cab of his van as hand lotion. He said he had used a small knife also in the van to strip some wires.

He said he had never before seen the two black plastic ties found looped together under the driver's seat, which Mr Langdale had suggested resembled "hand restraints".

Asked whether he had anything to do with Sarah's kidnap and murder he replied: "Nothing, no. Nothing whatsoever."

Mr Langdale asked him repeatedly why he had refused to help the police when they questioned him on 12 separate occasions following his arrest on July 2, 24 hours after Sarah went missing.

He said at first he felt detectives were harassing, badgering and hectoring him. Then he said he made no comment on the advice of his solicitor.

The trial in full: thisisworthing.co.uk/trial