The murder of Sarah Payne raised many issues but the most heartbreaking is that Roy Whiting had been in prison for abducting a child before.

These men and, in some cases, women should be sent to prison for life.

The protection of children is paramount and people who harm them should be dealt with severely by the courts.

The police do a great job investigating and bringing to justice the people responsible for these crimes, only to be let down by lenient sentences.

A mandatory life sentence with no parole should be given to such people, who could not then harm children again.

If they were not released from jail, they would not have the opportunity to go underground.

This would solve another problem - they give up their civil liberties when they commit these crimes.

-Steve Fuller, Rowan Avenue, Hove