THhe mother of Sarah Payne is urging police to back public access to the national Sex Offenders' Register.

Sara Payne is due to address the Police Federation's conference in Blackpool today.

Chairman Jan Berry said she did not believe there was a case for the general public to have unrestricted access.

But there were still issues about the control of paedophiles and other sex offenders which had to be debated.

She said: "We need to have a register that people can access but that access must be restricted."

The debate in front of 1,000 delegates from frontline policing in England and Wales will also feature a representative from the News of the World newspaper, which ran a campaign to introduce the so-called "Sarah's Law".

The Home Office has resisted calls for such a law, insisting it would increase the risk of vigilante attacks.

Sarah, eight, disappeared from a country lane near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, on July 1, 2000.

Her body was found in a shallow grave at Pulborough 16 days later.

Paedophile Roy Whiting, from Littlehampton, was jailed for life at Lewes Crown Court in 2001 for her murder and abduction.