Schoolgirl murder trial jury sees accused man’s country cottage

The jury, made up of nine women and three men, visited key areas of Machynlleth as well as Mark Bridger’s isolated cottage in Ceinws, where bone fragments from a child and blood said to match the DNA of the missing five-year-old were discovered.

Bridger, 47, is charged with abducting and murdering April, and of unlawfully disposing of and concealing her body with intent to pervert the course of justice.

April’s body has never been found and the former abattoir worker denies all the charges.

The jury spent yesterday viewing sites associated with Bridger’s trial at Mold Crown Court.

Judge Mr Justice Griffith-Williams, the prosecution led by Elwen Evans QC, the defence team headed by Brendan Kelly QC and several court officials joined the jury, which travelled by coach to Ceinws and the town of Machynlleth, where the prosecution says April was snatched as she played outside her home on the Bryn y Gog estate last October.

A low level police presence was apparent at each stop.

Jurors were taken into Bridger’s tiny cottage, called Mount Pleasant, in groups led by the judge.

In the front garden were three bunches of flowers and a pink and white teddy bear that had recently been left for April, who would have celebrated her sixth birthday a few weeks ago.

After the visit, photographs taken by police showing the inside of the house that Bridger lived in when April disappeared were released by the court.

The images are part of the prosecution’s evidence in the case.

The first photograph shows Bridger’s living room and the wood burner, where bone fragments consistent with being from a juvenile skull were found in the ash, the court has heard.

The photo also shows a pair of trousers thrown over a chair, papers and cardboard strewn on the floor and cans of Strongbow cider – which the jury heard Bridger bought with his benefits on the day April went missing – next to the wood burner.

A rifle can also be seen hanging over the fireplace and family photographs are hanging on the walls.

The cream leather sofa where more traces of April’s blood were found is also in the photograph.

There are also pictures of the hallway, a washing machine and the bathroom, where forensic searches found blood stains in various locations.

The photograph of the bathroom shows pointers, put there by forensics teams, which show where the tiny traces of blood were discovered.

Miss Evans told the jury earlier this week that when police searched Bridger’s house he had carried out an extensive clean up but had failed to get rid of all the evidence.

The court heard that traces of blood found around the living room, hallway and bathroom, matched April’s DNA.

The jury also heard there was a concentration of blood found around the wood burner in the living room, where there were also knives, including a boning knife, which was badly burnt.

Miss Evans said there had been attempts to clean away the blood stains and that when police entered the house for the first time there was a strong smell of detergent, and a smell of cleaning products, air freshener and washed clothes.

She added: “There was nothing which would strike the eye as April’s blood, it was only after careful forensic analysis that this evidence emerged.”

The defence accepts it was the schoolgirl’s blood.

Bridger denies the charges against him and says that he ran April over in a car accident before blanking out and cannot remember what he did with her body.

During the jury’s visit yesterday, they also visited Machynlleth Junior School, where April used be a pupil, and the Bryn y Gog estate, where she was last seen.

They were taken to the area in the middle of the housing estate where she was playing with her friend.

They also saw the garages where April was seen climbing into a car and a lay-by where a prosecution witness saw Bridger on the morning of October 2, as well as a B&B where Bridger was working at the time of April’s disappearance.

The trial continues.