A memorial to the Babes In The Wood murder victims has been destroyed by vandals.

A metre-long strip of wood has been sawn from the bench in Wild Park, Brighton, just yards from where Nicola Fellows, nine, and her friend Karen Hadaway, ten, were found strangled in 1986.

Nigel Heffron, 53, Nicola's uncle, said the families were distraught after the "heartless attack".

The plank has been cut out with a saw and appears not to be a random act of vandalism but deliberate removal of specific length of wood.

He said: "The bench has been there for 20 years without a mark and I just don't know why somebody would have vandalised it - it just doesn't make any sense.

"I just feel sheer disgust. It is heartless that somebody would do that."

The girls, from Brighton's Moulsecoomb estate, were last seen alive at 5.30pm on October 9, 1986. Their bodies were found in Wild Park at 4.20pm the following day.

Russell Bishop was charged with murdering them but was acquitted by a jury at Lewes Crown Court.

Bishop, a labourer from Hollingdean, Brighton, has so far avoided a second trial despite double jeopardy laws being repealed in April 2003 as police say that there is insufficient new evidence available.

It remains one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the country.

The bench was put up in memory of the two girls after hundreds of donations were made by the public.

Mr Heffron, a hospital controler of Whitehawk, Brighton, said the bench was beyond repair and is asking for help in finding similar wood to replace the desecrated memorial.

He added that a slab of stone from under the seat had also been removed and it appeared that somebody had also attempted to remove the plaque.

He said: "It was the very first thing that was put up after the girls were murdered and the family often come and sit here to remember and contemplate.

"What is it worth? £4 if that. In terms of the hurt for the family it is priceless.

"It is so disgusting the whole family is devastated."

Michael Murray, of the Brighton and Hove Environmental Action Group, discovered the vandalism on Wednesday as he was taking photos of travellers who had just moved onto the site.

He said: "The memorial bench to the two children murdered in the park in 1986 has been vandalised by having a section of timber cut out in the very recent past to judge from the weathering to the cut section.

"I am at a loss for words to express the depravity of this act."

Police said yesterday they were investigating the crime.