Devastated

At an emotionally-charged news conference the couple urged the public to do everything they could to stop another family being made to suffer like they had.

Speaking in public for the first time since the discovery of their daughter's body, Sara and Michael Payne, both 31, said: "We've got a job now and that's to catch this person, or persons . . . whoever it is has got to be stopped."

Mr Payne said: "We don't want this to happen to anyone again."

Fighting back tears, Mrs Payne said: "The family is devastated. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

She said the heartbreak the family felt was more difficult because they had not been able to say goodbye to eight-year-old Sarah properly. "We can't even see her because it is too hard, and it's not our Sarah. I don't believe anybody should be allowed to do that to anyone.

"We haven't been able to say goodbye to her. It's so unfair."

Mother-of-four Mrs Payne said of the killer: "Death is too good for this person. Help us find him."

Her husband, a spray painter, added: "The whole thing was senseless. To take a little girl like that for whatever reason, to do that to someone, and watch us go through all this."

Mrs Payne, a former barmaid, said: "Whoever it is has got to be caught and stopped. We can do that by being here, talking to the police to keep all of us together, to keep our faces in the newspapers, to make people remember.

"We still need information on this white Transit-type van. Obviously we can put it in a more defined area now."

Mrs Payne said the van may have been seen travelling between Kingston Gorse, on the Sussex coast where her daughter was last seen alive on July 1, and Pulborough 12 miles to the north, where her body was dumped the same weekend in a field ten yards from the A29.

Mrs Payne said: "We need information to catch these people. Man, woman, whoever.

"They must never be allowed to put people through this again. They have watched us suffer."

Referring to Sarah's brothers Lee, 13, Luke, 11 and sister Charlotte, six, she said: "They broke my children's hearts and they could have done something about it by picking up the phone.

"We believe in justice but prison is too good for this person."

Her husband said: "The whole thing was just senseless. To take a little girl like that - for what reason? How can someone do this to someone?"

Mrs Payne thanked everyone who had left cards and flowers by the side of the A29 at Pulborough, close to where Sarah's body was discovered.

She said: "It's brilliant and fantastic that there are so many people behind us. That is why we have got to stop this man."

Mr Payne said the family was unlikely to return to their home at Hersham in Surrey in the immediate future.

He said quietly: "We can't go home. That house housed a family of six."

Detective Superintendent Alan Ladley, who is leading the murder hunt, praised the strength and determination of the Payne family.

Speaking at the same news conference in Littlehampton, he said: "I don't suppose there's anyone in here that didn't feel any emotion when they were talking.

"How they stood up I don't know. They are really so strong.

"They feel an overwhelming need to do whatever they can and you can understand that need to find Sarah's killer.

"They feel this is the only way they can actually reach everybody and they are determined to do it and you can only admire that determination.

"Now they know what has happened to Sarah they want to know that the person that did that to Sarah can't do it again."

Mr Ladley went on to warn that "vigilante attacks" in the wake of Sarah's murder were wasting police resources.

He confirmed that 20 to 30 local youths had last night hurled stones and abuse at a house in Crawley where a man previously arrested in connection with the inquiry had been staying.

The man's father was removed from the house by police for his own safety.

He said: "The person we arrested is not at that address so any future vigilante attacks, no matter how well-intended, are inappropriate and not necessary and I have to say they will not be condoned by police."

Mr Ladley warned whoever was responsible that the police response would be "robust" if there were any more such attacks in the future.