- . Footage showed to jury showed April skipping and smiling after a swim
- . Mum Coral Jones told police she allowed April out at 7pm on October 1, 2012
- . 'I told her I didn't want her to be long. This was the last time I saw her'
- . Less than two hours later April was allegedly taken and killed
- . Suspect Mark Bridger, 47, was followed by police helicopter and filmed
- . Former abattoir worker denies kidnap and murder
These are the heartbreaking final CCTV images of April Jones running and skipping just before she was allegedly kidnapped and killed by murder suspect Mark Bridger.
The jury in his trial was today taken through the footage, captured on cameras from the leisure centre in Machynlleth, where hundreds of volunteers would convene hours later to search desperately for the missing five-year-old.
April visited the centre to go swimming after school on October 1 last year with her half-sister, 16, and the seven-year-old friend who witnessed her being driven away from the Bryn-y-Gog estate just an hour and a half later.
The images were shown as statements by the heartbroken parents of schoolgirl April Jones revealed how they didn't want her to go out to play on the fateful night she was kidnapped and murdered.
Upsetting: April Jones was shown on CCTV inside her local leisure centre after going swimming. The time shows almost 5.30pm and within two hours she had disappeared
Video: April is then seen heading through the doors after swimming with her sister and best friend - the last image that exists of the missing schoolgirl
Heartbroken: April Jones's parents Paul and Coral (pictured today) had not wanted their daughter to go out to play on the night she disappeared, the jury heard today
A jury today heard it was only when April, five, had a 'tantrum' that they gave in and let her go out on her bike for 20 minutes.
In her statement to police, her mother Coral, 43, told of the night when she last saw 'happy and smiling' April alive.
She had picked her up from a swimming lesson with her best friend and texted her husband Paul, 41, to make them spaghetti on toast for tea.
'April cleared her plate which is unusual because she's not normally a good eater, she said.
'She and her best friend then sat down to watch april's favourite Disney film Tangled on Sky.
'April wanted to go out to play but me and Paul said no.
'She kept on and on and had a bit of a tantrum and we eventually gave in.
'I zipped up her coat and she went off to play on her bike.
'I told her I didn't want her to be long - I think that was about 7pm. This was abut 7 o'clock. This was the last time I saw her.
'It was about 7.20pm and wanted April to come back home - she had been out about 20 minutes it was getting dark and colder.
'I sent her brother out to get her in and within a very short time he came running home in an hysterical state.
'When I calmed him down he said April's best friend said she had got into a car with a man and she had gone.'
It came as footage of Mark Bridger walking his dog in the hours after he is alleged to have abducted and murdered missing schoolgirl April Jones was shown to the jury during his trial today.
April’s father, Paul Jones, said she was ‘quite stubborn’ and begged to go out and play.
‘Neither Coral or I were keen for this to happen. The night was drawing in,’ he said, adding that he was ‘cross’ because she had dragged her bike through the house on her way out.
‘Harley came back and he was very upset. He was crying. He said someone had taken April and she had got into his car.’
Sketch: Mark Bridger in the dock, where he is using headphones to help him follow proceedings
Mr Jones, a stay-at-home father, suffers from a degenerative eye condition and could not help with the searches.
‘I felt so helpless,’ he said. ‘[Her friend] said something about a van and when she said that I went around the corner to look. I went back home and I just paced. I think I just paced waiting for news for 24 hours.’
Mr Jones told the jury he had known Bridger since about 1992 because he had children with the sister of the mother of two of Bridger’s children.
He said Bridger was about 32 when Elaine, his girlfriend, was in her teens.
Bridger broke down briefly as his statement was read out, whimpering as Mr Jones said he could not grasp how any father could harm a child.
‘I can’t think of any reason Mark Bridger would take April and hurt her,’ he said. ‘He is a father too.’
Police kept the former abattoir worker under surveillance with a helicopter and later swooped on his white-washed cottage, where they believe the five-year-old may have been killed.
Images: The jury were show Mark Bridger leaving his house and walking his dog on the day after April Jones disappeared
Filmed: Bridger was first filmed as he left his cottage on October 2, before they zoomed on him walking down the hill from his home
CCTV shows the girls going into the café at the leisure centre at 4.39pm before April excitedly ran ahead down the corridor towards the changing rooms.
At 5.40pm, April was then seen emerging with her older sister, who playfully swung her from side to side as they walked towards the exit and left for home.
Meanwhile, other cameras in Machynlleth had caught Bridger driving his Land Rover into town.
The prosecution say April was snatched by Bridger at just after 7pm that evening when she was playing on her bicycle close to her home with the friend she had been swimming with.
Bridger admits killing April but says he accidentally ‘crushed’ and drove off with her before going mentally blank, forgetting what he did with her body.
On the first day of prosecution evidence at Mold Crown Court, the jury of nine women and three men were shown CCTV from shops, garages, banks, buses and offices in Machynlleth, which enabled officers to track Bridger’s movements in the hours before April went missing.
Arrival: April's parents Paul and Coral Jones arrive at Mold Crown Court today, which was heavily guarded by police today
The first shot, taken from a Spar shop, showed Bridger buying cider and wine on night before the alleged abduction.
The next day he was seen driving to and from town, visiting a council office before returning home to view vile child pornography and send Facebook messages to local women asking for ‘no strings’ encounters.
He was again spotted driving to town at 4.48pm, as April was about to start her swimming lesson.
At 7.19pm, moments after April was taken, Bridger’s Land Rover is seen on cameras speeding away from town in the direction of his home in nearby Ceinws, where fragments of juvenile skull and blood stains matching April’s DNA were later discovered.
Yesterday the jury in the trial of the former abattoir worker were taken by coach to the 47-year-old's white-washed cottage, and led through the rooms where the five-year-old may have been murdered.
Inside police say they found blood and bone fragments from missing schoolgirl April Jones.
Forensic officers who searched his house found traces of blood in his living room, hallway, and on the bathroom door, washing machine door and the shower curtain, saying it was a 'billion to one' match with April’s DNA.
The prosecution's case centres on its wooden-burning fireplace, which contained bones believed to be from a child's skull.
It is believed that she lay bleeding and dying on the hearth of its stone-lined fireplace, and her body may then have been burned and dumped in a river inside a black bin bag.
It was also where officers investigating her disappearance arrested Bridger, who said as they arrived: 'I know what it's all about', Mold Crown Court was told.
Bridger denies abducting and murdering April as well as perverting the course of justice by destroying and disposing of her body after she disappeared while playing on her bike near her home in Machynlleth, Mid-Wales, on October 1 last year.
Lounge: This is Mark Bridger's living room, where forensics found blood and bone fragments, a room which was shown to jurors today
Bathroom tiles: The green arrows denote where police say they found April's blood following Mark Bridger's arrest
Investigation: The prosecution also allege that April's DNA was discovered in the hallway of the cottage
Bathroom: Police says blood was found on the inside of the door of this washing machine
Visit: Jurors arrive by coach at the home of Mark Bridger, Mount Pleasant in Ceinws, Mid Wales, on the third day of his trial for the abduction and murder of April Jones. it is surrounded by trees, outbuildings and a river runs down its left side
The jurors were shown around the cottage - and shown photographs after police scoured it for clues.
Throughout the visit the road past the cottage was closed to prevent traffic coming into or out of the village.
The coach driver waited a short while before setting off for the next leg of their viewing - a lay-by where a prosecution witness saw Bridger on the morning of October 2 with a black bin bag.
He told detectives he was going to the toilet.
The jury also went on a site visit to the town of Machynlleth yesterday to view April's primary school and the road where she was last seen alive, 'happy and smiling', according to her best friend.
Bridger, 47, is accused of abducting and murdering five-year-old April in a 'sexually motivated' attack before disposing of her body.
The largest search in British police history has failed to find April after seven months scouring the hills, rivers and woodland around her hometown.
Prosecutor Elwen Evans QC told the jury, before they visited the house, that Bridger was seen reversing his Land Rover into his isolated home just an hour after the schoolgirl was abducted.
Miss Evans said: 'That first night and all into the next day the identity of April's abductor was unknown.
'And during that time Bridger went to extensive steps to carry out a clear-up operation to get rid of any trace of April from his house.
'All we can say, standing here now, is that in spite of the huge search the only material and traces of April that have been found are in this house.'
Trial: Mark Bridger says that he ran April down with his car but cannot remember what he did with her because he had been drinking heavily, claims which the prosecution refute
The court heard previously that police went to there half an hour before Bridger was arrested - because he had become a suspect in the abduction of little April.
When he didn't answer the door they searched the house to see if the missing 5-year-old was being kept alive inside.
Miss Evans said: 'When they went inside they said the house was uncomfortably hot and that there was a strong smell of detergent and cleaning products, air freshener and washed clothes.
'The police couldn't realise the significance at the time.
'The fire to dispose of evidence - the detergent to clean up.'
Forensic experts began a detailed search of the house after Bridger's arrest to discover if any trace of the missing schoolgirl could be found.
Miss Evans asked the jury before they visited the house: 'What happened to April there? She lay bleeding in front of the fire in the living room.
'One person, we say, knows and is not prepared to say.'
In police interview five days after April vanished, Bridger told officers he didn't think April had ever been in his house before.
He tried to explain the presence of the missing schoolgirl's blood in his house by saying there may have been blood on his hands when he tried to revive her after accidently 'crushing' her with his car.
He said if there was a trace of blood on his hands there 'might have been some that went on to the wall of the bathroom when I was having a wee.'
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