son was born the following year and divorced in 1990. Whiting also fathered a daughter with another unnamed woman around 1990. Whiting was involved in banger racing during his 20s and 30s, but eventually abandoned his interest in the sport due to a lack of success. First conviction On 4 March 1995, an eight-year-old girl was abducted and sexually assaulted in the Langley Green area of Crawley. Whiting was arrested several weeks later; a man who knew him came forward after hearing that the abductor's car was a red Ford Sierra, which matched the description of the car that Whiting had just sold. The vehicle was traced by police to its new owner and a knife was found hidden in it. On 23 June 1995, Whiting admitted charges of abduction and indecent assault, and was sentenced to four years in prison. The maximum sentence for the crime was life imprisonment; however, he received a lesser sentence because he had admitted to the crime at an early 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 a penalty for refusing to participate in a sex offender rehabilitation program. Minimum sentence 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. Shortly afterwards, the High Court and European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of another convicted murderer, Anthony Anderson, who was challenging the Home Secretary's right to decide whether a life sentence prisoner should be considered for parole. In June 2004, the media reported that Whiting would appeal to the High Court for his sentence to be reduced. 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. Blunket's lawyers argued that his decision was politically motivated, as he had known for some time