The man accused of murdering Sarah Payne has said it was "pure coincidence" that more than 20 fibres were found linking him to the schoolgirl.

As the case against Roy Whiting came to an end, Timothy Langdale QC, prosecuting, said that Whiting would have to be an "unfortunate" victim of "bad luck" if the nine-inch hair had become dislodged from another exhibit package and attached to his red sweatshirt.

"You would be the most unfortunate man," he said. "It would have been bad luck so far as you are concerned?

"The alternative is that barring that extraordinary accident it can only mean one thing.

"That one thing is that you were the man who kidnapped the girl, you were the man who killed that child and you were the man who buried her body. That is the only other alternative is it not?"

Whiting replied: "It was not me.

"It could be coincidence. It is a very common red sweatshirt. We don't know, in the eight to 12 weeks she had those shoes, what fibres she might have picked up, or what fibres she picked up on her clothes before coming down to Kingston Gorse."

Whiting, 42, formerly of St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, denies kidnapping and murdering Sarah.

Mr Langdale, referring to a curved scratch on Whiting's chest, said: "Was it in fact a possibility that you were not wearing anything on the top half of your body?

"Has it got anything to do with that girl in your van? Has it got anything to do with the fact that she was in the van?"

Whiting, wearing the same red sweatshirt and blue jeans he has worn for most of the trial, said: "No, it's got nothing to do with that fact."

On day 14 of the trial at Lewes Crown Court, Mr Langdale questioned why Whiting had failed to make any comment in his last police interview of February 6 when detectives revealed damning forensic evidence linking him to Sarah's death.

Mr Langdale said to Whiting: "You must have been appalled to discover that you, an entirely innocent man, found there were fibres linking you to the death of that little girl.

"The game was up, was it not?"

Whiting replied: "No."

When asked about his second arrest on July 31 last year - two weeks after Sarah's body was found - Whiting admitted he "should have told" detectives what he was doing on July 1, the day she disappeared.

Mr Langdale asked Whiting: "You were questioned for four-and-a-half hours. Wasn't then the time to perhaps try and assist the police that you weren't involved? Circumstances had rather changed.

"This little girl's body had been discovered. Wasn't this the time to help the police and at the very least eliminate you?"

Whiting replied: "I should have, yes."

He admitted that he had "lost his cool" with the persistent questions.

Mr Langdale: "There is one easy way of stopping these questions, wasn't there? Very easy, just tell the police the truth."

Whiting: "Yes."

He insisted that he was merely following his solicitor's advice to answer "no comment" to the questions.

Mr Langdale: "You were no doubt glad to do that as the truth was going to damage you, wasn't that the fact?"

Whiting denied that that was the case.

When Whiting was first arrested on July 2, he failed to ask an officer who sat with him in his flat what had happened to the girl he was accused of abducting.

Mr Langdale said: "You made the point to the police officer that you did not know anything about her going missing until 'you lot visited earlier'. 'It was not me', is what you said.

"Why, if you were innocent, did you not ask that policeman, who was not badgering you, how that girl went missing?"

Whiting said: "I did not want to talk to a police officer."

Mr Langdale replied: "You were saying as little as possible to the police."

Earlier Whiting denied he had changed his appearance the day after Sarah was snatched from a country lane near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse.

Mr Langdale said Whiting had "cleaned himself up" but he responded: "I had not had a shave or a bath on the Sunday."

Under further cross examination, Whiting then said he might have had a shave on the Sunday morning. But he insisted that he had had a bath on the Saturday.

The jury was sent home by Mr Justice Curtis and told to return at 10.30am tomorrow when Mr Langdale will give his closing speech.

The court heard that Sally O'Neill will give the defence's closing speech on Friday while Mr Justice Curtis will sum up on Monday.

The trial in full: thisiworthing,co.uk