Child protection campaigner Sara Payne described herself as the voice of "common sense" today as she received an MBE from the Queen.

Mrs Payne's tireless efforts at working to protect children from paedophiles and speaking out for victims after her daughter was murdered in 2000 led to her receive the honour from the Queen.

At the beginning of the year she was made the Government's Victims' Champion, a 12-month post where she provides an independent public voice for victims of and witnesses to crime.

The campaigner, speaking after receiving the award from the Queen at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, said: "It's my job to see this year what's the lot of victims - are they being treated well, are they being treated well enough and are there things we need to change in the system.

"My role is just really to make the victim's voice just as important as the criminal's voice."

She added: "I was asked for my opinion and I gave it - it's the voice of common sense. I see things in a different way and from a different angle."

Mrs Payne's campaign began after her eight-year-old daughter Sarah was kidnapped from a Sussex field by Roy Whiting in July 2000.

Whiting was a serial sex offender who had also abducted and sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl five years earlier.

Moments after he was jailed for life, Mrs Payne called on the government to change the law surrounding information about paedophiles.