- .'Fantasist' father of six faces potential whole-life jail term for 'horrific' killing
- .Jury refuse to accept he knocked April down with a car and lost his memory
- .'Mark Bridger is evil and committed the most horrific of crimes', police said
- .April's parents sat silently during verdicts - Bridger nodded and stared up
- .Murderer given rare 'whole-life' prison term, meaning he will never leave jail
- .Judge calls him 'paedophile' with 'sexual and morbid fantasies about girls'
- .April's parents 'relieved' he's convicted, but are 'heartbroken' she is gone
'Evil' Mark Bridger was today found guilty of abducting, murdering and disposing of schoolgirl April Jones and told he will never leave prison because of his 'horrific crime'.
The judge at Mold Crown Court today gave the former abattoir worker a whole life sentence, calling him a 'pathological and glib liar', and a 'paedophile who for some time harboured sexual and morbid fantasies about young girls.'
Justice Griffith-Williams also asked him to reveal what he did with April's body for the sake of her parents Paul and Coral, who sat just feet away from him as he was jailed.
On October 1 last year Bridger abducted and murdered April, five, and disposed of her body, before 'lying through his teeth' by claiming he accidentally hit her with his car and was so drunk he did not know what happened to the body.
But after a five-week trial it took the jury just four hours to decide father of six Bridger was a fantasist, obsessed with child murder and child pornography, who abducted April, murdered and dismembered her after snatching the schoolgirl as she played on her bike.
He probably disposed of her body by burning her in his fire at home and had then dumped some of her remains in a river - but he still refuses to reveal what he did with her body.
Jailed: Sexual predator and murderer Mark Bridger is taken from court this afternoon to start his whole life sentence in jail
The judge said on his laptop Bridger stored 'not only images of pre-pubescent and pubescent girls but foul pornography of the gross sexual abuse of young children.
'What prompted you 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.'
Earlier today, after just four hours of deliberations, the jury agreed there was 'overwhelming' evidence that the former abattoir worker had snatched and killed the five year old in a 'sexually motivated' attack last October.
After the sentencing Coral Jones, April's mother said: 'We are relieved that Mark Bridger has today been found guilty of the murder of our beautiful daughter April.
'April will be forever in our hearts and we are so moved by the overwhelming support we have had from so many people all over the world.'
In court today, a statement read on behalf of April's parents spoke of how they still cannot enter her bedroom at home because they are so heartbroken.
It also revealed they feel deep guilt for letting April go out to play on her bike on the evening she was abducted.
Brave: April Jones's mother Coral spoke outside court today, beside her husband Paul, and said they were relieved that Mark Bridger was found guilty
Trial: Mark Bridger faces life in prison for the murder of April Jones, after the jury accepted compelling evidence he had abducted and murdered her in a 'sexually motivated' attack
Today Bridger was standing as he was found guilty, he looked up to sky, trembling, with his faced screwed up, and even appeared to nod his head.
As the jury returned the guilty verdicts, April's parents Paul and Coral sat in silence, holding hands.
Coral then wiped a tear from her eye while Paul put his hand to his face and wrapped his arms around April's teenage half-sister. The family, all wearing pink ribbons in memory of their murdered daughter.
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.
Ed Beltrami, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Wales said after the verdict: '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.'
Happier times: Paul and Coral Jones, hold April and their other children on their wedding day, before their 'beautiful daughter' was taken from them
April disappeared as she was playing with her best friend near their homes on the Bryn-Y-Gog estate, Machynlleth, Powys, on October 1 last year.
Bridger, a former slaughterhouse worker from Ceinws, denied abduction, murder and intending to pervert the course of justice.
The child killer's refusal to confess - either to murdering April or to where he had hidden her body - forced the child's grieving parents to endure five weeks of harrowing evidence, causing her mother, Coral, to flee the courtroom on various occasions, distraught and in tears.
Brave: Paul and Coral Jones, the parents of April Jones arrive at Mold Crown Court, where they have been every day during their daughter's killer's murder trial.
Bridger's heartless lies have also had a huge financial cost, with months of painstaking police searches, forensics, legal work and the money involved in providing him with security and transport to court each day of the trial costing the public as much as £9million.
During his five-week trial he repeatedly wept at Mold Crown Court as he painted himself as a man who had 'accidentally' run over a child and then panicked before blacking out due to alcohol.
He said he killed April when he accidentally 'crushed' her with his Land Rover but claimed he can't remember what he did with the body because he was drunk and panicking.
But it was all lies and it emerged:
- Bridger was an impotent alcoholic who was bitter after being dumped by his girlfriend
- He stalked local teenage girls on Facebook who searched for horrific images of child sexual abuse on the internet
- He used the fact that five-year-old April would have known him as being the father of a girl she knew at school to lure her into his car and later kill her
- Killer confessed to prison priest after his arrest that he disposed of the schoolgirl in a river, evidence kept from jury reveals
Tragic: April Jones was abducted while she played on her bike (pictured), probably lured by Bridger into his car with the promise of a sleepover with his daughter
Experts said today getting Mark Bridger to crack and finally reveal what he did to April Jones could take years.
He has rigidly tried to stick to his fanciful story that he “accidentally” killed cerebral palsy sufferer April - and could not remember what he did with her.
Nottingham Trent University senior psychology lecturer Serena Simmons said: 'He clearly is deluded and has a distorted view of the world. He certainly displays this mentality of "if I keep stalling then eventually things will blow over". But that is far from the case.
“He definitely knows what he has done to April Jones and how she came to her death.
'The cracks in his story have already started to show during his trial. He will face more questions while in prison from his psychiatrist.
'Whether he chooses to engage with that process is a different matter, but I fear finding out the full extent of what he did could take a very long time.
Cold-blooded: Killer Mark Bridger had pictures of himself holding this gun on his Facebook profile
Grim discovery: Mark Bridger's burnt knife recovered from his property in Ceinws, where April may have died
After viewing child pornography and a rape scene on television at home, Bridger decided to abduct April, which kick-started the biggest missing person hunt in police history.
She has never been found but police say they would try again if Bridger came clean about her death.
As hundreds scoured streets and countryside in the desperate hope of finding April safe and well, Bridger was cleaning her blood from his house and trying to remove DNA evidence - but he failed.
Later he shed tears over the ‘terrible news’ of her disappearance and helped volunteers to look for her, but was seen close to a river with a black bin liner, but said he was 'going for a wee' in a lay-by.
Arrival: The media watch as Mark Bridger arrives in a prison before he is found guilty of killing the five-year-old
In an emotionally-charged month-long trial the jury was shown the last, poignant image of five-year-old April Jones before she was killed. It was taken from CCTV footage at her local leisure centre as she came out of the changing rooms from her regular Monday evening swimming lesson. The time on the film was 5:29pm.
They were also shown Mark Bridger's Land Rover Discovery driving away from town at 7:19pm.
April would already have been in the passenger seat after Bridger abducted her from outside her home nearby.
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
The next morning, while hundreds scoured streets and countryside around the mid-Wales market town of Machynlleth, Bridger calmly went out for a walk with his dog.
He was captured on film by a police helicopter above the cottage in which the Crown says April lay bleeding on the hearth.
Smoke billowed from his chimney, which prosecutors suggested was a way of disposing of evidence.
Half an hour before his arrest, police officers went into Bridger's white-washed cottage searching for April.
They said the house was uncomfortably hot, there was a strong smell of detergent, and a smell of cleaning products, air freshener and washed clothes as he tried to hide his crime.
The only trace of the innocent blonde schoolgirl would emerge the next day - her blood in the ex-slaughterman's home, found with fragments of a child's skull among the ashes of his fireplace.
Detective Superintendent Andy John, who led the hunt for April's killer, said: 'Mark Bridger is an evil and manipulative individual. I think we have clearly identified during the course of our inquiries and during the course of the investigation that he is somebody who fantasises, he is somebody who likes to be in control and clearly believes that what he says is the true version of events.
'He is somebody that can't be trusted and, ultimately, he is somebody who has committed the most horrific of crimes.'
Images: The jury were show Mark Bridger leaving his house and walking his dog on the day after he took April Jones
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. He had probably already disposed of her body
Footage: A camera at a garage spotted Bridger's car, which probably contained April at the time
Police believe Bridger, who was experienced in 'survival and bushcraft', dismembered April in his lounge before getting rid of her body in the forests and waterways in the hills surrounding his home.
Mr John said: 'I think that the body has been dismembered and various parts of the remains have been placed in different areas and possibly those remains have been so small and damaged that that's why we have had such difficulty in locating them.'
'He knows the geography of the area. We've got the rivers close by and the rivers were fast flowing and at the time this offence occurred they would have been very high.
'We can't rule out that body parts may have gone into the river. We can't rule out that certain parts would have been burnt.'
Lounge: This is Mark Bridger's living room, where forensics found blood and bone fragments, a room which was shown to jurors
Bathroom tiles: The green arrows denote where police say they found April's blood following Mark Bridger's arrest
Mr John said he believed the attack was sexually motivated but that he did not think April was 'specific target'.
He said Bridger's life was spiralling out of control after he had been dumped by his girlfriend and he was also having financial difficulties.
'I think that April Jones happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and as a result was abducted,' he said.
The youngster's blood was found all over Bridger's cottage and a boning knife - obtained from his time as a skilled slaughterman - was found to have been burned in the fire to apparently eradicate any DNA evidence.
Bridger, who the prosecution said was 'forensically aware' had cleaned his Mount Pleasant cottage in the tiny Welsh hamlet of Ceinws from top to bottom.
Horror: Floral tributes and a single candle burns outside Bridger's white-washed cottage, where he watched violent films and child pornography
Mark Bridger April Jones maps/graphics
In court Bridger, who could be seen with a large snake tattoo on his forearm, often wept when describing what he said happened to April. He wept most when he felt a piece of testimony or evidence might be backing up his wild claims.
When one forensic scientist said he could not say for sure that an assault took place in Mount Pleasant, Bridger openly wept and nodded.
But when the same scientist added that this did not mean an assault did not take place outside the house and Bridger brought April inside, he regained his composure.
The jury heard he had researched serial killer Ted Bundy on the FBI’s most wanted website, and also read about the James Bulger murder and was ‘volunteering’ information he knew about other murdered children, including Caroline Dickinson, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
His laptop had child porn on it, as well as files of pictures of local children, including April, grabbed off Facebook.
MARK BRIDGER'S PATH TO MURDER: HOW APRIL'S ABDUCTION UNFOLDED
Monday, October 1
17.20 After spending morning watching child porn, Mark Bridger attends parents evening at Machynlleth Junior School. One teacher thinks he may have had a 'couple of drinks'
17:55 - 19:10 numerous sightings of Bridger on the Bryn-y-Gog estate in his car, including by a 10-year-old girl who was asked by Bridger if she wanted to go on a 'sleepover' at his house.
Around 19:00 April Jones is playing on her bike with friends near her home on the Bryn-Y-Gog estate when she goes missing. According to a child witness, she is taken away in a van or a four-wheel drive vehicle and there are no apparent signs of a struggle or an accident.
19:19 Camera sees what is believed to be Bridger's vehicle at the war memorial in Machynlleth and then past a nearby garage with April probably inside.
22:40 Dyfed-Powys Police issue a statement saying they are "increasingly concerned" for April.
Tuesday, October 2
08.42 Bridger spotted carrying a rolled up plastic binbag on a riverbank or in Ceinws.
10:42 Police helicopter footage shows him walking a dog. Footage also focuses on his house. There is smoke coming from his chimney. The jury was told that fragments from a 'juvenile skull' were found in his wood burner.
14.10 Bridger joins a group of 20 people who are searching for April telling them he had been searching all morning near his home for her.
15.00 Police search his house, finding it had been cleaned from 'top to bottom' and the heating cranked up
15:30 Bridger is arrested walking on the road between Ceinws and Machynlleth in connection with April's abduction and is later charged with her murder.
‘You are a paedophile who has harboured sexual and morbid fantasies about young girls’: What the sentencing judge told Bridger
Mark Bridger was described as a paedophile and a 'pathological and glib liar' as he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail by Mr Justice Griffith Williams (right).
Here are the judge's sentencing remarks in full:
'The sentence for murder is life imprisonment but I have to decide the length of the minimum term you must serve.
'Schedule 21 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 provides that if the court considers the seriousness of the offence is exceptionally high, the appropriate starting point should be a whole life order and that the cases which would normally fall within that category include the murder of a child which involves the abduction of the child or sexual or sadistic motivation.
'While I am satisfied that the seriousness of your offending is exceptionally high, I must nonetheless consider whether a substantial minimum term, in excess of a starting point of 30 years, would be sufficient to reflect the gravity of these offences.
'For the last four weeks, the court has listened to compelling evidence of your guilt, evidence which has also demonstrated that you are a pathological and glib liar. 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, storing on your 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 the 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.
'April would not have been afraid of you, partly because you have some charm and she may well have seen you about the estate and probably because you let her know your son was a friend of her brother (just as you had tried to charm her sister into allowing you to be her Facebook friend by mentioning your links to her parents). And so it was that, innocently and trustingly, April got into your Land Rover smiling and happy.
'What followed is known only to you but this much is certain - you abducted her for a sexual purpose and then murdered her and disposed of her body to hide the evidence of your sexual abuse of her, which probably occurred on the way from the estate to your home because there is some 60 minutes of your time which cannot be accounted for.
'I cannot infer from the evidence where you murdered her but if she was alive when you took her to the house, she died there.
'How you disposed of her body must remain a mystery. It will serve no purpose for me to speculate as to what happened but all the indications are that you burnt at least a part of her in the wood burner.
'The grief of April's parents cannot be over-stated. They lived with the torment of a missing daughter, praying that she would be found alive and then, following your arrest, with the knowledge that you were providing the police with no assistance at all as to her whereabouts. To add to that torment, they have had to endure the spectacle of your hypocritical sympathy for their loss and of your tears, flowing not because of any regret for your crimes, but because of your enduring self-pity.
'Without the knowledge of what happened to April, her parents will probably never come to terms with their grievous loss, described so eloquently in the impact statement. It is to be hoped, for their sakes... and for the sakes of all those who mourn April, that the verdicts will bring some measure of closure.
'Your offences were aggravated by their premeditation and by the destruction of at least a part of her body and the concealment of the rest. It is also a relevant consideration that you not only abducted April with a sexual motive but then sexually abused her in some way.
'While I have had regard to the absence of any relevant conviction, I have no doubt there can be only one sentence.
'For the offence of murder, I sentence you to life imprisonment with a whole life order. There will be no separate penalties on counts 1 and 3.'
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