Carol Vorderman has revealed the harrowing murder that still haunts her is the death of eight-year-old Sarah Payne in 2000.
Sarah disappeared while playing in a cornfield with her two older brothers and younger sister in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex.
The youngster’s disappearance sparked a nationwide manhunt but tragically her body was found abandoned in a field 15 miles away two weeks later.
Sarah was snatched and killed by evil paedophile Roy Whiting, who was jailed for her murder in 2001, and was told he must serve a minimum of 40 years in jail.
Her death shocked the nation and sparked major concerns about internet chat rooms.
At the time former Countdown star Carol feared that chatrooms had become a breeding ground for sex offenders – sparking her to join charities and academics to campaign to improve safety measures around the grooming of young children.
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
As part of her work she joined a task force, which passed the UK’s first Online Grooming act, and established a protection body known as the CEOP – now part of the National Crime Agency.
The presenter explained: “It was an abduction and murder that shocked us as a nation and deeply changed our attitudes towards child safety.
“We realised legislation was needed to protect the youngest in society and fast but it seemed impossible at the time.
(Image: PA)
But Carol now fears that virtual online spaces like the Metaverse could result in a new epidemic of paedophiles targeting young children online.
She said: “The Metaverse is incredibly realistic and our brains convince us that we are physically there.”
She said she is an occasional user of VR headsets and while “it’s an exciting new world with wonderful possibilities”, it is “not a game”, adding the “damage it is already doing is terrifying”.
(Image: PA)
Carol explained there have been reports of people inside the Metaverse trying to touch adults and children inappropriately, “hurling horrid abuse and posing as people they are not”, adding it has “an eerie similarity” to what she “fought for two decades ago”.
Carol added she is supporting Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in her efforts to bring the world’s first Online Safety Bill, although she is “not a party political person at all”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
