A family laid a wreath in the shape of an angel at the gates of Downing Street to remember murdered children.

Susan Eismann, the mother of murdered Nicola Fellows, is helping lead a campaign for harsher penalties for paedophiles.

Nicola and friend Karen Hadaway, both nine, were sexually assaulted and strangled in Wild Park, Brighton, in 1986. The killings became known as the Babes in the Wood murders.

Nicola's cousin Danielle Heffron, 11, and her cousin Kaylee Heffron, four, laid the wreath and later handed in a teddy bear and flowers at Number Ten.

Earlier, the family delivered an 18,000-name petition to the Commons.

Mrs Eismann, 52, from Brighton, said: "I was thinking of Nicola and Karen throughout the visit to London. If Nicola is up there looking down, then I'm sure she's pleased with what we are doing.

"The girls will never be forgotten and I won't rest until justice is done."

The girls' murders remain unsolved but, as The Argus revealed exclusively yesterday, Sussex Police are looking again at the evidence in the light of Government plans to scrap the double jeopardy rule which prevents a suspect being tried twice for the same crime.

Brighton roofer Russell Bishop was cleared of the killings at Lewes Crown Crown Court but was later jailed for life for the kidnap and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl from Whitehawk, Brighton.

Mrs Eismann and Nicola's uncle Nigel Heffron and family are campaigning for stronger sentences.

They want child abusers and killers to serve their entire sentences, including life sentences, unless they undergo therapy and prove they no longer pose a risk to society.