Sara Payne received a standing ovation at the conference

The mother of murdered eight-year-old Sarah Payne was cheered by police officers as she urged them to back public access to the national Sex Offenders' Register.

Sara Payne received a standing ovation from more than 1,000 delegates at the Police Federation's annual conference in Blackpool on Tuesday.

She was seeking support for the so-called 'Sarah's Law', which would give the public details of sex offenders living in the community.

Mrs Payne, 34, told the conference Sarah would still have been alive if she had known her killer Roy Whiting lived nearby.

My future grandchildren are at risk from people like this and we have to find a way of protecting our children Sara Payne

She told officers she was "speaking from the heart" and looked close to tears as she described the loss of her daughter, who disappeared while playing in a field in West Sussex on 1 July 2000.

Her body was found 17 days later and 42-year-old Whiting, a convicted sex offender, was eventually jailed for life for Sarah's murder in December 2001.

Mrs Payne said she should have been entitled to know there was a convicted child sex offender in the area.

She said: "If I had known Roy Whiting lived in that area there is no way my children would have been out to play.

"That might have saved my daughter's life.

"How many other lives might be saved?"

Concerns over vigilantism

She said she was concerned that when Whiting came out of prison he would not go onto the register of child sex offenders, because the crimes he was convicted of - murder and abduction - did not bring an automatic place on the list.

She said: "He killed my daughter and one day he will face probation and I'm sure the powers that be will say time has passed and he has paid his penalty.

Sarah, eight, disappeared near her grandparents' home in July 2000

"But my grandchildren, my future grandchildren, are at risk from people like this and we have to find a way of protecting our children."

Earlier, Mrs Payne, who is expecting another child, told the BBC she was keen to clear up misconceptions about the measure, which has been resisted by the Home Office because of concerns over vigilantism.

"We have only ever asked for access to information on the most serious of paedophiles that are the Roy Whitings of this world - sexual predators - not on flashers in the street or other offenders," said Mrs Payne.

"They don't necessarily know the name or address, but they know that person is in their community and at large."

She insisted "strict guidelines" would have to be in place to prevent people acting as vigilantes.

Police Federation chairman Jan Berry said she did not believe the general public should have unrestricted access to the register.

"I don't think the general public, when you are dealing with really emotive offences like this, have the maturity to deal with that information in a sensitive way," she said.