The father of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne made a tearful pledge to save his broken marriage for the sake of his family.

Sara and Michael Payne barely left each other's sides yesterday at an emotional summit of families whose lives have been shattered by some of Britain's highest-profile crimes.

The event aimed to highlight the gulf between the money spent on criminals and that made available for relatives of their victims.

The Victims of Crime Trust claims just £18.66 is spent helping each victim of crime while about £30,000 is spent each year keeping a prisoner behind bars.

Among the 60 present were Jamie Bulger's mother Denise Fergus, Damilola Taylor's father Richard and Jane Ashton-Hibbert, whose 81-year-old grandmother was given a lethal morphine injection by serial killer Harold Shipman.

Few families have been as utterly wrenched apart as the Paynes.

Sara and Michael's little girl was snatched from them in July 2000 as she played in a cornfield with her brothers and sister in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton.

A year later Roy Whiting, a serial sex offender from Crawley, was jailed for life for her kidnap and murder.

By then, the strain of trying to hold together a family in the shadow of Sarah's death had driven her father into depression.

He separated from Sara, began drinking heavily and finally attempted suicide.

Michael had left hospital just three days before the public launch of the Victims of Crime Trust campaign in central London yesterday.

He and his wife took turns to dote on their baby daughter Ellie as they returned to the media spotlight.

Tired-looking but cheerful, Mr Payne said: "Sara and I are not actually fully back together. But we are working on that and have started courting again.

"We are working our problems out and hopefully we will get it together.

"I've had the right counselling, the right therapy and I'm doing pretty good.

"When you have been to the bottom of the barrel it's difficult to imagine there's a way out but things are definitely looking up. First and foremost, I plan to win back my wife and children.

"I'll work at it for as long as it takes. We're not going to rush into anything but we have spoken a lot over the past month about our future. She has agreed to come out with me on a date, which is a result."

The launch aimed to highlight the emotional and financial strain put on families like the Paynes, who are often forgotten once their stories fall from the headlines.

Sara is a patron of the trust which is aiming to encourage one million people to phone a petition hotline.

She said: "We did not have proper support after Sarah. There was Victim Support but they were old ladies who'd give you a cuddle and that's not what you need. You need to be able to talk and to be understood and to be helped, even if it's everyday things. You're too shell-shocked to do basic things like paying the bills. You just forget to do it.

"This is what this campaign is all about. It's to help future victims of crime.

"I feel a bit cheated we did not get better help, especially when criminals get so much support."

Sara said she nevertheless believed she and her husband had been treated comparatively well compared to other families.

She said: "I've always said Michael and I were treated very well, which shows it can be done.

"It cost a lot of money to treat us as well as we were but it was essential.

"No one's saying money should be taken away and prisoners should not have beds, be fed or rehabilitated. If people can come out of prison and get support, victims should be able to hold their heads up high too.

"We just want a balance. The Victims of Crime Trust was there for us, to listen when I needed to shout, rant and rave.

"It helped out if you needed something practical, like to go to the post office or pay the bills. Sometimes that's all people need. For others, there's a darker concern. They fall into depression, as Michael did, but the trust was there to help get support.

"You have to learn the pain will never go away, you will never get your old life back again, but that does not mean you can never get a new life.

"Michael has always suffered from depression but we're getting there."

PC Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "The average life sentence for a convicted murderer is now under 13 years.

"The families begin their own life sentences the day the crime is committed. They are never the same again.

"Every anniversary, every birthday and every Christmas is a painful reminder."

The charity is planning to send a representative from every Parliamentary constituency to Downing Street later this year to lobby Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The campaign's petition line on 0906 7800999 costs £1 to call, with profits going to the Victims of Crime Trust's fund to provide counselling to victims.