Whiting's First Conviction
On 4 March 1995, an eight-year-old girl (unnamed for legal reasons) was abducted and sexually assaulted in Langley Green. Whiting was arrested a few weeks later after a man who knew Whiting came forward after hearing that the abductor's car had been a red Ford Sierra, which matched the description of the car that Whiting had just sold.
Three months later, Whiting admitted charges of abduction and indecent assault, and was sentenced to four years in prison. The maximum sentence for the crime would have been life imprisonment; however, he received a lesser sentence because he had admitted to the crime at the earliest opportunity, although a psychiatrist who assessed Whiting after his conviction said that he was likely to re-offend once he was released.
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 penalty for refusing to undergo a sex offenders rehabilitation course.
Whiting moved 40 km (25 mi) away from Crawley to Littlehampton on the West Sussex coast, upon his release.
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