The family of murdered Babes in the Woods schoolgirl Nicola Fellows has attacked an anti-paedophile task force for having no representation from victims' families.

Nigel Heffron believes the murders of his niece Nicola and her friend Karen Hadaway, both nine, in Wild Park, Brighton, gives him more experience than most to help crack down on adults who pose as children in chat rooms.

His brother, Nicola's father, Ian, from south Wales, even served as a child protection officer with Essex Police between 1984 and 1989.

But both were denied entry to The Home Secretary's Task Force for the Protection of Children on the Internet - made up of police officers, MPs, children's charities, computer experts and academics - despite backing from former Home Secretary David Blunkett and Baroness Aneley.

Nicola and Karen were sexually assaulted and strangled on October 9, 1986, but to date no one has been brought to justice for the murders.

Nigel Heffron, of Fletching Close, Brighton, said he was concerned there was no grass roots level representation on the task force.

He said: "There is no representation by any victims on the panel. If you're trying to protect children then the obvious people to have on this committee are people like us.

"What I would have campaigned for is checks on chat rooms. If you want to register on a chat room you need a password. What we are suggesting is a 24-hour laydown so initial checks on a person's address and name can be made to stop someone who is 54 from posing as a child.

"I've called myself Father Christmas with 1 North Pole as my address on an MSM account to go into different chat rooms, and it was immediately accepted."

Ian Heffron said: "We believe we've something to offer, partly because we would be representing victims of a crime. We've seen what the worse kind of paedophile can do. We wanted to bring a grass roots level to the committee and I can also bring my experience of having dealt with child protection."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are very sympathetic to the Heffrons' experience. To join the task force, we made it clear you have to be supported by a current member and bring something new to the task force.

"We think the voice of victims are facilitated through five charities, including The National Children's Homes, NSPCC, Barnardo's, Childnet International and Stop It Now."