Child killer Roy Whiting has been on the receiving end of numerous beatdowns since beginning his life sentence in 2001 for the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Sarah Payne, and he’s now giving evidence at the trial of another inmate who stabbed him with a wooden shank in February last year.
Whiting was left cowering under his bed after Andrew Light, 45, entered his cell and started attacking his head and neck with the weapon at HMP Wakefield.
When a guard asked if Whiting was dead, Light replied: ‘Let’s hope so.’
Whiting told Leeds Crown Court: ‘I bled a hell of a lot – I thought it was something major.’
Prosecutor Michael Smith told jurors ‘we will not be seeking any sympathy for Roy Whiting’, who they were aware is serving life for Sarah Payne’s murder in 2000, but noted in this case ‘he is the victim’ and they need to regard him as such.
Giving evidence, Whiting told the jury he was in his single occupancy cell on D Wing between 2pm and 4.30pm on February 11 last year.
As he was stood beside his noticeboard marking down what he had eaten that day, Andrew Light came into his cell and stood beside him.
Whiting told the court: ‘I heard the door open on my cell and an inmate walked in. I didn’t know him, I have never met him, never spoken to him.’
‘I had seen him on the wing maybe once or twice. He asked me if I was Whiting, and I said “yes”.
‘And then he pulled a homemade shank and started to attack me with it. It was in his hand, and I didn’t see it until he pulled his hand around in front of him.
‘He didn’t say anything, rather than start swinging with me with the shank in his hand.’
Whiting described Light raining ‘forceful’ blows to his face and head as he tried to defend himself with his arms, eventually losing his balance and falling onto his bed with his back towards the wall.
Light then jumped on top of him, but Whiting was able to take control of his wrists to stop the stabbing continuing.
‘He was still trying to stab me with the shank, but he could not get any real power.’
Light then got up and Whiting used his legs to fend him off.
He described being hit by ‘at least a dozen’ blows to his face and head, which were ‘coming in so fast and quick’.
Whiting then heard the ‘rattle’ of a prison guard’s keys as he cowered under the bed while screaming for help.
‘I knew I had been cut badly, I didn’t know exactly where. I got under my bed for protection.’
Eventually, officers entered the cell and detained Light.
Light has admitted possessing a bladed article in the prison and also pleaded guilty to unlawfully wounding Whiting, but prosecutors say the attack was an attempt at murder. Which is probably right, to be fair.
As mentioned previously, it’s not the first time that Roy Whiting has been set upon by his fellow inmates in prison, and almost certainly won’t be the last.
In 2017, Whiting was battered with a flask and in 2011, he left hospital in a wheelchair after double murderer Gary Vinter stabbed him in the face with a sharpened toilet brush handle. In 2002, murderer Rickie Tregaskis slashed his cheek with a razor blade, leaving a 6in scar. In 2020, murderers Richard Prendergast and Kevin Hyden both stabbed Whiting and repeatedly punched and kicked Whiting while yelling “you f-cking nonce.”
Both men were handed a further 7½ years’ jail time after admitting wounding with intent.
Now obviously it’s extremely difficult to have any sympathy for Roy Whiting. He’s a piece of sh1t and the world would be a better place without him. Does that make these attacks justifiable? Some might say there is something hypocritical about murderers judging/punishing other murderers, but I guess raping and killing children is way more condemnable than killing adults, and nowhere is that more evident than within the prison system and attitudes of prisoners themselves.
I suppose he better brace himself for the next time this happens. Head on a swivel, Whiting!
For the time inmates absolutely battered a prisoner who took part in an acid attack on a 3-year-old boy, click HERE. Moral of the story = don’t mess with kids.
