Sarah Payne’s killer Roy Whiting stabbed and left 'covered in blood' following prison ambush
12 February 2024, 17:19 | Updated: 12 February 2024, 17:44
Sarah Payne’s killer Roy Whiting has been stabbed and 'left covered in blood' following an attack by a fellow inmate inside one of Britain's most secure prisons.
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Whiting, 65, was stabbed repeatedly during the frenzied attack, with a prison officer forced to administer emergency first aid.
The paedophile was sentenced to 40 years behind bars for the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne in 2000.
It's the latest attack on the prisoner following his incarceration inside HMP Wakefield, a Category A prison.
Dubbed "Monster Mansion" the correctional facility is home to around 600 of Britain's most dangerous inmates.
His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
A source told The Mirror: "Whiting is hated in prison. He was stabbed and was covered in blood. They were trying to kill him."
It comes two decades on from schoolgirl's abduction - a case which sparked one the nation's most extensive search operations.
Sarah's body was found two weeks on from her disappearance in a field just 15 miles from the home.
Whiting was convicted of snatching and murdering eight-year-old Sarah Payne as she played with her siblings on a country lane near her grandparents' Sussex home.
Read more: Double child killer Colin Pitchfork to get fresh parole hearing after successful challenge
It's the latest in a string of attacks targeting the jailed abuser, following murderer Rickie Tregaskis' 2002 razor-blade attack on Whiting whilst behind bars, which left a six-inch scar across the murderer's face.
Nine years later, double killer Gary Vinter attacked Whiting with a sharpened toilet brush handle.
The second incident saw Vinter, 53, ambush the paedophile in his cell after evading guards.
It comes just five years after Whiting was beaten by Richard Prendergast and Kevin Hyden, who snuck into his cell with makeshift weapons - including strips of wood laden with nails.
Payne was playing hide and seek with her two brothers and sister when she found herself lost in in a field near Kingston Gorse, West Sussex on July 1, 2000.
She was picked up on a country lane by Whiting as she attempted to find her way back to her grandparents' home.
Whiting was initially questioned by police 24 hours after the schoolgirl's disappearance, only to be re-arrested on July 31 after he was initially freed without charge.
The child killer was eventually found guilty of Payne's murder despite pleading not guilty in court, before later being sentenced to life in prison for her sexual assault and murder in December 2001.
