The detective who headed the inquiry into the disappearance and death of schoolgirl Sarah Payne has retired.

The investigation was the highest-profile case Detective Superintendent Peter Kennett worked on during his 32 years with Sussex Police.

He described it as "the saddest case I ever handled".

A man has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murdering Sarah near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, on July 1 last year.

Mr Kennett was born above a men's outfitters in Montague Street, Worthing, and attended St Andrew's School in the town.

He spent all of his policing career with Sussex and joined first as a cadet in the late Sixties before becoming a PC in 1969 in Bognor.

Mr Kennett worked as a detective constable in Brighton and was promoted to sergeant in Eastbourne in 1975.

He is thought to be the first officer in the town to order police to draw their truncheons when officers tackled a violent stag party after fights on Eastbourne Pier.

Mr Kennett was punched in the face during the melee, which ended with nine arrests.

He spent two years as an inspector at Lewes before promotion to detective chief inspector and soon afterwards to detective superintendent.

Mr Kennett has led several major murder inquiries but one still has him intrigued.

It was in 1991 when a headless and handless corpse was found in undergrowth between Cuckfield and Bolney.

It was thought by some to have been a gangland killing with mutilation to prevent identification.

Three years later, when the police file closed, the victim had still not been identified and no arrests had been made.