Our continuing nightmare, by April’s parents

Bridger, 47, kidnapped April before sexually abusing her, murdering her and then disposing of her body last October.

Paul and Coral Jones told The Sun there is “no way” that Bridger will tell them where their daughter is - and they will not give him the satisfaction of asking.

Mrs Jones said: “It’s the not knowing that’s the hardest part. It’s my worst nightmare come true.

“We haven’t got a body to give April a proper burial and that breaks my heart.

“Lots of people have questioned him, but he’s refused to tell us all along. If he’s lied to police, barristers, the judge, there’s no way he will tell me where my little girl is.”

Police believe Bridger dismembered April’s body before dumping the body parts at various locations in the hills, rivers and forests surrounding his home in Cienws, mid-Wales after traces of her blood were found all over his rented cottage, along with bone fragments.

The couple hope the coroner will give them the bone pieces in order to carry out a symbolic funeral, the Sun reported.

Mr Jones said: “It’s all we’ve got and it’s looking like all we’ll ever get. It’s so, so hard.”

He added: “It was just a sexual fantasy for him at the end of the day, and our April paid for it with her life.”

One of the most distressing parts of the trial for the couple was having to hear Bridger say their daughter’s name, and refer to her as “little April”.

The couple said they had known the “child-murdering coward” whose son is at the same school as their children.

But they never had any reason to think he was “weird”, they added.

Mrs Jones compared their ordeal to that of Winnie Johnson, whose son Keith Bennett was killed by Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley but his body was never found.

She said: “He’s put a hole in our heart. He ripped a happy family apart. He’s evil.”

Bridger, a former slaughterhouse worker, 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.

April had been playing with friends close to her home on the Bryn Y Gog estate in Machynlleth, mid-Wales when Bridger enticed her into his car.

Officers 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.

In the wake of the trial a senior MP has called for a code of conduct for internet providers, to ensure they remove material which “breaches acceptable behaviour standards”.

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, told The Times that the case has shown that online images of child sex abuse need to be removed.

And Jim Sheridan, who sits on the Commons culture committee, said that violent sexual images, including those depicting children, should be blocked.

He told the Times: “I know it’s extremely difficult to ban it (but) I think with the political will and the technology, if you can do it, we should be doing it.”

April’s murder is the second high-profile case this month to feature disturbing extreme pornography.

In a file on his laptop marked ‘Z0’, twisted Bridger held cartoon pornographic images depicting bound and gagged youngsters being sexually abused, as well as images of apparently dead youngsters.

Earlier this month, the Old Bailey heard how Stuart Hazell, jailed for murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp, had searched for vile child porn on the internet using terms such as “violent forced rape” and “incest”.

Phillip Noyes, acting chief executive of the NSPCC, said April’s case adds to growing evidence that there is a link between child and extreme porn, and committing other serious sexual assaults.

He 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.”

In 2011, Bristol Crown Court heard how Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak, who murdered 25-year-old Joanna Yeates, was obsessed with images of women being strangled during sex and had perversions for violent pornography.

April’s case comes after a confidential hotline used to flag criminal content online revealed it had seen a 32% increase in the number of reports of images showing the rape and sexual torture of children.

The hotline, run by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) charity, can also be used anonymously to report child sexual abuse content as well as “criminally obscene adult content”.

IWF spokeswoman Emma Lowther said about 1.5 million adults have stumbled across child sexual abuse content on the internet - but last year the organisation received just under 40,000 reports.

She said: “The UK is extremely quick and nimble at tackling what is possibly the most horrendous images and videos available on the internet.

“But to use the IWF and the online industry effectively, we need everyone to do the right thing and report to iwf.org.uk.

“Removing the images is by far the best way to prevent people from seeing them. It also prevents the victimisation of the abused children.”

The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge Bridger with offences in relation to indecent images.

District crown prosecutor Iwan Jenkins said: “There was also evidence that Bridger had committed offences relating to indecent images.

“However, we determined that it was not in the public interest to charge Bridger with any additional offences.

“This decision was taken in light of the significant public interest in the case and in order to ensure Bridger’s right to a fair trial was maintained.

“It is a fundamental right of all defendants to be regarded as innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

“By not charging these additional offences, we reduced the risk of there being any legal issue on this point.”

Last week, the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition wrote to the Prime Minister calling for a change in legislation to close a loophole which allows some simulated images of rape to be allowed in this country.

A statement from charity Rape Crisis, an EVAW member, which campaigns to raise awareness of sexual violence, said it commended the decision to give Bridger a whole life sentence.

It said: “Our concern is that given current legal loopholes, similar men using pornography simulating acts of sexual violence including rape, child sexual abuse and incest, would not be committing an offence under existing extreme pornography legislation.

“An open letter to David Cameron sent by women’s groups last week identifies this loophole and asks for it to be closed as a matter of urgency.”

John Carr, UK Government adviser on online child safety, said Google’s “moral leadership” was essential to persuading other internet search engine providers to tighten access to hardcore pornography, which could reduce cases of people viewing child abuse images.

Mr Carr told the BBC’s Today programme: “Google’s moral leadership is essential here. They are the biggest player in this space in the world. If they did it, I think others would have to follow.”

Mr Carr earlier explained that Google, similar to all search engines, blocks access to web addresses it knows contains child abuse images.

But Mr Carr said code words are used on hardcore pornography sites which people can click on and eventually access places where child abuse images are displayed.

He said putting any barriers up to hardcore porn sites would help reduce the number of men viewing child abuse images.

Mr Carr said: “My argument is they [Google] can and should be proactive. They could, for example, turn safe search on by default so that would block access to all hardcore porn sites and those sites are one of the key routes that guys get to child pornography in the first place.

“Google could set it up in such a way they [a person] would have to register with them to get an account.

“They could at that point ask them to verify that they are 18 or above, because this would be providing access to hardcore porn as well, and that would be a huge deterrent for many of these guys. That would stop them getting on the pathway that led to the child abuse images we have been discussing.”