Life for April Jones ‘paedophile’ killer UPDATED

Five-year-old April vanished while playing on her bike near her home in Machynlleth, Powys, on October 1 last year.

Bridger, 47, was given a whole life sentence by trial judge Mr Justice Griffith Williams after he was convicted by a jury at Mold Crown Court of April’s abduction and murder and of perverting the course of justice by unlawfully disposing, destroying or concealing her body.

Bridger stood impassively as sentence was handed down but shook his head when the judge addressed his perverted interest in violent child abuse.

The judge said: “There is no doubt in my mind that you are a paedophile, who has for some time harboured sexual and morbid fantasies about young girls.”

The judge said Bridger had stored on his laptop “not only images of pre-pubescent and pubescent girls but foul pornography of the gross sexual abuse of young children.

“What prompted you on Monday October 1 to live out one of those fantasies is a matter for speculation, but it may have been a combination of the ending of one sexual relationship and your drinking.

“Whatever, you set out to find a little girl to abuse. I am not sure you targeted April specifically - it was probably fortuitous that she can be seen on some of the images which you stored on your laptop of her older sister - but you were on the prowl for a young girl.” Before sentence was passed, the court heard a heart-breaking victim impact statement from April’s mother.

Paul and Coral Jones sat in the main courtroom in front of the dock for Bridger’s sentencing hearing.

Coral, with her hair dyed red and wearing a patterned blouse, stared at the defendant as he was brought in.

Elwen Evans QC read a victim impact statement on behalf of Mrs Jones.

She said: “Words alone cannot describe how we are feeling or how we manage to function on a daily basis, and I would never, ever want any other family to go through what we are and will go through for the rest of our lives.”

The disappearance of April, who had cerebral palsy, sparked a massive outpouring of support for her family, with hundreds of people joining in the search.

The jury of nine women and three men convicted Bridger, 47, of Ceinws, with unanimous verdicts following four hours and six minutes of deliberations.

From the dock, Bridger, wearing a blue shirt and spotted tie, looked nervous before the verdicts were read. He closed his eyes and appeared to hold back tears as the guilty verdicts were read.

April’s parents Paul, 41, and Coral, 43, who have attended every day of the month-long trial, were following the verdicts from the public gallery, on a balcony overlooking the court room. Mrs Jones appeared to wipe away tears as the verdicts were announced.

The verdicts were greeted with complete silence from the public gallery.

The trial, which began on April 30, was told that Bridger was a “fantasist” who had “a clear interest in child pornography and in child murder cases”.

The defendant himself had told police he was an SAS-trained “mercenary” but he was in fact a former abattoir worker and a failed London fireman - who quit the service after six months because he could not reach the required training standard.

Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting, said Bridger murdered April then played a “cruel game” in an attempt to cover his tracks.

She told the jury: “He claimed to know the rugged terrain around Machynlleth well, and that’s been a significant feature in police determining the size, scope and scale in their search for April.”

Miss Evans also told the jury about the kind of obscene material which had been found on Bridger’s laptop following his arrest.

Police found numerous indecent images on the computer, as well as pictures of young female murder victims, including Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the victims of Soham killer Ian Huntley.

Bridger also had images of local young Machynlleth girls, including April and her half-sisters.

On the day April was abducted, Bridger had viewed online photographs of a young girl and a pornographic cartoon depicting the apparent rape of a physically restrained and visibly distressed girl.

The same day, his girlfriend had finished with him and he had tried to ask three different women out on Facebook.

It is not known what Bridger said to April to entice her into his car. The court heard she was “happy and smiling” when she was seen climbing into a Land Rover Discovery.

Miss Evans told the jury Bridger’s claim that April died in a car accident was lie to cover up his “sexual” motivation for snatching the five-year-old.

Early in the trial, the jury was taken to visit Bridger’s cottage, Mount Pleasant, where April’s blood and small bone fragments were found.

Those microscopic pieces of April’s skull were all that was found, despite the largest search in British policing history and a police investigation which cost in the region of £8.5 million.

Bridger is a “cold-hearted murderer” who “spun a web of lies and half-truths” to try to get away with his “truly horrific” crime, prosecutors said after the verdict.

In a statement, Ed Beltrami, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Wales, said: “Ever since his first interview with police in October last year, Mark Bridger has relentlessly spun a web of lies and half-truths to try and distance himself from the truly horrific nature of the crime he perpetrated. He has refused to take responsibility for what he did to April and has stopped at nothing to try and cover his tracks.”

He added: “Working together, we have been able to comprehensively dismantle Bridger’s version of events and expose him as a violent, cold-hearted murderer and a calculated liar.

“I would like to record our thanks to everyone who supported the prosecution of this case. Everyone who has provided a statement to police or given evidence in court has played their part in today’s verdict.

“At the very heart of this case are April’s family, who have been through - and continue to go through - an ordeal of appalling magnitude. They have conducted themselves with a humbling dignity throughout.

“We can only hope that today’s verdict will be of some help to them as they continue to try and come to terms with the loss of April.”

Phillip Noyes, acting CEO of the NSPCC, said: “It seems Bridger lived in a fantasy world which included looking at child abuse images online.

“For some time we have been concerned about the growing number of these obscene images which are becoming more easily available and can fuel the fantasies of offenders like Bridger.

“This case points to the ever-growing evidence that there is a worrying link between looking at this vile kind of material and committing other serious sexual assaults.

“April’s death will hopefully lead to effective measures to stamp out this vile trade.”

The screen in the dock was taken down just before the sentencing hearing so Mr and Mrs Jones would have a clear view of the defendant.

Bridger nodded and closed his eyes when his barrister Brendan Kelly QC said it was likely that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

In a very brief speech Mr Kelly said there was very little, “if any”, mitigation available to him.

He said he was “loathe” to raise the issue but one area of mitigation was the fact there was only one victim in the case and that Bridger “was not a repeat offender.”