On the evening of 2 July 2000, officers from Sussex Police first visited Roy Whiting at his seafront flat in Littlehampton as part of their inquiries into Sarah Payne's disappearance.

[10] Police officers and numerous volunteers scoured the area around Littlehampton for clues to Sarah's disappearance, and her family made daily appeals on national television news for help in finding her.

On 10 July, police announced that they had received information regarding the sighting of a girl who matched Sarah's description at Knutsford Services on the M6 motorway in Cheshire on the morning after her disappearance.

Three days later, Michael and Sara Payne were warned by police to "prepare for the worst", explaining that the emphasis of their inquiries had shifted and that there was a possibility that their daughter might not be found safe and well.

[11] The officers left Whiting's flat but were suspicious of his apparent lack of concern for Sarah, which differed from the attitude of at least one other known sex offender who had already been questioned.

He spent two days in custody but the police had no concrete evidence to press any charges, although they had found a receipt for fuel at Buck Barn garage near Pulborough, which contradicted his alibi of being at a funfair in Hove at 5:30 p.m. and then returning to his flat by 9:30 p.m. on the night Sarah disappeared.

[9] On 23 July 2000, Whiting stole a Vauxhall Nova in Crawley and was pursued by police at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour (113 km/h) before crashing into a parked vehicle.

The jury also heard the testimony of two motorists who recalled a white van being parked at the roadside and pulling off a track on the evening of 1 July 2000, near the site where Payne's body was later found.

[19] On 12 December 2001, after a four-week trial before Mr Justice Curtis and a jury, Whiting was convicted of the abduction and murder of Payne and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The fact that Whiting had now been exposed as a repeat offender sparked renewed calls for the government to allow controlled public access to the sex offender's register, although on the day after Whiting's conviction, the Home Office commented that such a system would be "unworkable," running the risk of driving paedophiles "underground", making it more difficult for the police to monitor and locate them, and putting them in danger of vigilante attacks.

Twenty forensic experts from a variety of fields were employed during the inquiry, including entomology, palynology and environmental profiling, oil and lubricant analysis, pathology, geology, and archaeology.

[30] Whiting was released from prison in November 1997, having served 2 years and 5 months of his 4-year sentence, and was one of the first people in Britain to go on the sex offenders' register.

He had been forced to serve an extra five months in prison before being released on licence as a penalty for refusing to participate in a sex offender rehabilitation programme.

[31] On 24 November 2002, it was announced that Home Secretary David Blunkett had imposed a 50-year minimum sentence on Whiting, which meant that he would not be released from prison until 2051 at the age of 92.

Whiting's appeal against the ruling was heard on 9 June 2010 at the High Court, which now has the final say on when or if a life sentence prisoner can be considered for parole.

Whiting's lawyers argued that Blunkett's decision was politically motivated, as he had known for some time that he was likely to be stripped of his powers to decide on minimum terms for life sentence prisoners, that the government was under fire from the British public due to a firefighters strike, and that this would be an opportunity of setting a 50-year tariff for Whiting, a move that would prove popular with voters due to the high profile of the crime and the fact that it was still relatively fresh in the public imagination.

In June 2004 convicted murderer Rickie Tregaskis was found guilty of carrying out the attack which left Whiting with a 6-inch (150 mm) scar on his right cheek.

His injuries were described as "minor"[38] The campaign for Sarah's Law was spearheaded by the News of the World newspaper, and began in July 2000 in response to Payne's murder.

Their belief was proved correct 17 months later when Roy Whiting was found guilty of the murder, and it was revealed that he already had a conviction for abducting and indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl.

A modified scheme, whereby parents can enquire about a named individual who has regular access to their children, was introduced in four pilot areas of England and Wales in September 2008.

In August 2010 the Home Office announced that, after proving successful, the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme would be extended to cover the whole of England and Wales by spring 2011.

[3] Sara Payne was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in December 2008 for her work toward the passing of Sarah's Law.

[45] He separated from Sara after 18 years of marriage in August 2003, and subsequently became an alcoholic, leading to a 16-month jail term for attacking his brother with a glass in December 2011, while intoxicated.