The devastated dad of Jo Yeates yesterday told of the heartache of having to arrange his own daughter's funeral.

David Yeates said family and friends of Jo were too upset to turn the service into a celebration of her life.

He spoke as the man accused of strangling her, Dutchman Vincent Tabak, 32, appeared before Bristol crown court via video link from Long Lartin jail near Evesham, Worcs. His trial was provisionally set for October 4.

The judge heard the body of landscape architect Jo, 26, had been released for burial after a second postmortem for Tabak's defence.

Mr Yeates, 63, of Ampfield, Hants, said: 'We are planning an ordinary funeral. We are anticipating over 100 people but we are attempting to keep it to those who know Jo rather than people who just knew of her.

'Her family and friends are incredibly sad and it is for those people to get together and think about what she was and what she could have been. We cannot celebrate her life. It is difficult to associate celebration with what has happened.

'We are still having difficulty coming to terms with the fact she is not with us. It is an incredibly difficult time because of the circumstances because it is not like a car accident or dying of an illness. It has been tortuous to reach this stage.'

IT consultant Mr Yeates expressed sympathy for Kate and Gerry McCann whose daughter Madeleine, three, has never been found since she vanished on holiday in Portugal in 2007.

He said: 'We really feel for those people who have not been able to bury their children. The McCanns are one set of people like this.'

Mr Yeates said he and wife Teresa, 58, were trying to cope with Jo's death: 'We will always have Jo in our minds as long as we live.'

No date has been set for the funeral of Jo, whose body was found on Christmas Day three miles from her flat in Clifton, Bristol.