Police investigating the murder of eight-year-old schoolgirl Sarah Payne yesterday appealed to a lorry driver they believe could provide vital information to come forward.
It emerged yesterday that a car driver from London contacted Sussex police on July 29th to report a potentially key incident on the night Sarah disappeared.
The driver and his two daughters were travelling along the A29 in west Sussex behind a white lorry when a white transit-style van drove out from a laneway beside the field where Sarah's body was discovered and into the path of the lorry. The van pulled out with only its sidelight lit and the lorry was forced to break sharply to avoid the small van before all three vehicles continued north along the A29.
Sussex police said the lorry had a distinctive black-and-white logo of a spanner inside a tyre painted across its rear doors. The lorry was about 30 feet long and 12 feet high and had curtains along the side panel of the driver's compartment.
It had a British number plate and the sides of the lorry were covered in tarpaulin.
Detective Supt Peter Kennet, of Sussex police, is leading the inquiry and he appealed for the lorry driver to come forward.
"I cannot stress how important it is to find this lorry driver. He is an absolutely key witness." In a direct appeal to the lorry driver, he said: "You would perhaps be one of the key witnesses to the entire inquiry as to what you actually saw on the night of July Ist."
He insisted any information provided by the lorry driver would be treated in confidence.
The development is significant because Sarah's brother, Lee (13), told police he saw a white transit-style van in the lane close to where she disappeared during a family holiday at their grandparents' home in Kingston, west Sussex, at about 7.45 p.m. on July 1st.
The car driver said the incident with the van and the lorry took place at about 11 p.m. on the day Sarah went missing. The driver did not see the person driving the van, but Sussex police said the driver's description of the van fitted the description of a white van given to them by Lee Payne.
Sussex police now believe it is possible that the driver saw the van Sarah's murderer was driving shortly after dumping her body in the field beside the A29, north of Pulborough, west Sussex.