[Pyramid*]

I'd happily torture gists like this. Abduction and murder of a young innocent child is one thing....but to deliberately increase the suffering of those loved one is beyond any human comprehension by not at least saying what happened and if there are any remains of this poor god forsaken little soul.

I'd love to spend some 'quality' time with bastards like this.

[thesheriff443]

Originally Posted by Pyramid*

I'd happily torture gists like this. Abduction and murder of a young innocent child is one thing....but to deliberately increase the suffering of those loved one is beyond any human comprehension by not at least saying what happened and if there are any remains of this poor god forsaken little soul.

I'd love to spend some 'quality' time with bastards like this.

case's like these highlight the need for the death penalty to be brought back.
there is no need for this monster to still be alive.

[Pyramid*]

Originally Posted by thesheriff443

case's like these highlight the need for the death penalty to be brought back.
there is no need for this monster to still be alive.

TBH, I've not followed this one in any real depth - If he has admitted his guilt and is able to affirm that he personally was responsible for her death etc: without any shadow of doubt: I totally agree.

In situations whereby there is 100% absolute certainty that a person was the killer: I agree with you: that's when I do believe in the death penalty - but it's so fraught with problems that it will never be so.

[bbfan1991]

Jury selection in the trial of the man accused of murdering missing five-year-old April Jones has finished for the day at Mold Crown Court.



Mark Bridger, 47, from Ceinws, Machynlleth, Powys, denies abducting and murdering April, and intending to pervert the course of justice.

April went missing as she played with friends near her home in Machynlleth on 1 October and has never been found.

Jury selection will continue on Tuesday.

Mr Bridger, wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt and tie, sat in court flanked by two prison officers.

April's parents, Coral and Paul Jones, also arrived at the court ahead of the trial, which could last until the middle of June.

On Monday, about 50 potential jurors were called into court by the judge, Mr Justice John Griffith Williams.

He gave them directions and those who felt they could not sit on the jury spoke to the judge and their reasons were either accepted or rejected.

He allowed 30 potential jurors to retire until Tuesday to consider the issues he has raised.

They were asked to return on Tuesday so a jury of 12 can be selected by ballot.



The judge said those not selected on Tuesday should consider themselves on a reserve list should any problems arise.

When the jury panel was brought into court on Monday morning, he told them: "I don't know if you have been reading your newspapers or listening to the news but, if you have, you will probably have worked out by now that I am about to start the trial which arises out of the alleged murder of April Jones in Machynlleth last October.

"It is very important that no person in the jury with any present or past connection with the Machynlleth area should sit on the trial, and certainly no connection which would cause concern about that juror sitting on the case."

The potential jury members were also told arrangements had been made for the jury to go to Machynlleth on Thursday to visit various sites.

Legal argument is expected on Monday afternoon.

April's disappearance sparked one of the largest police searches in UK history.

[Nedusa]

Can they convict this man of murder even if they do not know 100% if she has been murdered ?

Have they enough forensic evidence to link this man to this girls disappearance ??

Without a body and forensic evidence linking this man to her body will it not be difficult to secure a "safe" conviction for this man ?

[Cherie]

I thought I heard he confessed to her manslaughter. They must feel they have enough evidence to convict. Sadly for April's parents the official search for her was called off last week. I can't even begin to imagine how it would feel to lose your child and not be able to say goodbye properly.

[Z]

They must have a lot of evidence against him if they're prosecuting without the body.

[Livia]

The CPS decided that the police had enough evidence to charge Mark Bridger with abducting and murdering April and of unlawfully disposing of and concealing her body with intent to pervert the course of justice. We have to assume that they've got some pretty damning evidence.

[lostalex]

there are a lot of older women with bright pink hair in the UK. I've noticed this.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Livia

The CPS decided that the police had enough evidence to charge Mark Bridger with abducting and murdering April and of unlawfully disposing of and concealing her body with intent to pervert the course of justice. We have to assume that they've got some pretty damning evidence.

Blood with April's DNA was found at his cottage along with fragments of bone in the fireplace thought to be from her skull. He had indecent images of young children on his PC. He admits to "running her over" but says he cannot remember what happened after this. Given April was seen getting into his car this seems a little far fetched.

[AnnieK]

Just unimaginable what her parents are going through having to sit through this. Although I assume they would know what evidence the police had, would they?

[Nedusa]

Watching news tonight, prosecution's case + forensics look pretty damming

I think guilty , guilty , classic Paedophile poor little girl shame on him what a monster...

[Novo]

What an abomination of a man, if there is any justice his life will be a living nightmare for as long as he lives, people like that don't even deserve to be treated as a Human being

[Ninastar]

Can't believe he said that he 'might have run her over' and he 'might have disposed of the body' but he doesn't know

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Novo

What an abomination of a man, if there is any justice his life will be a living nightmare for as long as he lives, people like that don't even deserve to be treated as a Human being

Agree Novo, This must have been a really traumatic day for her Parents in court,with clearly some truly sinister and disturbing evidence to come yet too likely.

I would just echo your words above 100%.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by lostalex

there are a lot of older women with bright pink hair in the UK. I've noticed this.

Alex April's Mum has her hair dyed in April's honour as it was her favourite colour

Originally Posted by anniek76

Just unimaginable what her parents are going through having to sit through this. Although I assume they would know what evidence the police had, would they?

I think April's parents would have been made aware of the evidence against him when he was charged.

[Ammi]

April Jones was killed by a 'sexually motivated' abductor who downloaded images of murdered Soham girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, a jury was told yesterday.

Mark Bridger, 47, kept child porn and pictures of dead youngsters on his laptop and studied vile internet images before kidnapping the five-year-old, it was alleged.

The former slaughterhouse worker is said to have snatched ‘happy and smiling’ April as she played outside her home one evening last October – hours after he was ditched by his girlfriend

The chilling scenario of what the Crown says happened to the innocent child from Machynlleth, mid-Wales, was outlined yesterday as Bridger went on trial accused of abduction, murder and perverting the course of justice.


He denies the charges maintaining, according to the prosecution, that he accidentally ran April over with his Land Rover – and has ‘no recollection’ of what happened after he drove off with her.


Despite a huge search by police and public, her body has never been found. Yesterday the jury at Mold Crown Court was shown a series of images recovered from the former lifeguard’s computer, including those of Cambridgeshire ten-year-olds Holly and Jessica, murdered by paedophile school caretaker Ian Huntley in 2002.


Also shown were photographs of other child murder victims and images he had collected of local young girls, among them files specifically dedicated to April’s half-sisters, aged 13 and 16.


The jury heard that pictures of April, who had cerebral palsy, were accessed just eight days before she was abducted.

In addition, there was an animation which was watched hours before April went missing. It portrayed the rape of a ‘physically restrained and clearly distressed young girl’, prosecuting counsel Miss Elwen Evans QC told the jury.

She added: ‘In addition to child pornography and photos of young girls, the defendant also had an interest in child murder and rape cases; for example, images of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman from the Soham case. Why will you need to consider this sort of material? You will have to decide whether pretty five-year-old April was abducted and murdered or run over by accident and killed, as the defendant says.

‘We say his interest in pornography, young girls, rape and murder cases is all too relevant and you may see it as the key to understanding what he did and why he did what he did.’

Miss Evans said that after Bridger had been dumped by his girlfriend, he contacted a succession of women asking them to go out with him.

‘It is our case that the defendant’s actions – abduction, murder, covering up what he had done by disposing of the body – were sexually motivated. We say he knows full well what he has done to April, but chooses not to say.’


She went on: ‘On October 1 last year April Jones, happy and smiling, was seen getting into the defendant’s Land Rover.


‘He drove her away and that was the last that anyone apart from the defendant saw of April. The largest search in British policing history has failed to find her.

‘April’s best friend saw the abduction taking place. She saw the defendant speaking to April. She saw April getting into his Land Rover and she saw the defendant taking April away.’

The jury of nine women and three men was told that April had been playing with a friend on their bikes near their homes on the Bryn-y-Gog estate, on the edge of the small market town of Machynlleth.


The two girls started to walk home because it was getting dark

The friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, saw April walk over to where Bridger was standing by his vehicle, Miss Evans said. ‘It looked as if he was waiting for someone. She saw April go over to the defendant and start talking. She saw April get into the car.


‘The defendant did not carry her – April got in herself. April was happy. She wasn’t crying. She was smiling.’


The court heard that April’s friend recognised the vehicle as the same one two friends had been in the day before. The two friends were Bridger’s children, the court heard.

‘I didn’t say anything,’ the friend said. ‘I just watched. I thought she would come back.’


Miss Evans told the jury: ‘That was the last that anyone apart from the defendant saw of April.’


April’s mother Coral and father Paul sat silently in the public gallery, each wearing a pink ribbon in memory of their daughter, as details of what the prosecution called Bridger’s ‘clear interest in child pornography and child murder cases’ was revealed.


Examples of the ‘distressing’ material downloaded to Bridger’s computer were shown on screens around the court.

At least one of the jury of nine women and three men put her hand to her face and bowed her head as they appeared. Some photographs were of apparently dead children, one a partly naked pre-pubescent girl hanging by her neck.


Others showed young girls bound and gagged or performing sex acts on adults


When asked by police why he had images of naked children, Bridger said he ‘wanted to understand his own daughter’s physical development’, Miss Evans told the court. ‘He said he wanted to help her become a model.’


Bridger also claimed he complained to foreign porn companies about the content of some sites.


He admitted he did find some images sexually arousing ‘but only where the female was over 16 years of age’, Miss Evans said.

The jury heard that Bridger used his computer for various vile internet searches. Terms he used included: ‘Naked young five-year-old girls’, ‘nudism five-year-old’, ‘pictures of naked virgin teens’ and ‘France: British schoolgirl raped and murdered’.


The biggest search in British police history failed to find April Jones or any of her clothes, the court heard.


But jurors were told they would be invited to consider other strands of evidence in the absence of any explanation from Bridger as to what he did with her.

Miss Evans said that ‘as April’s body is lost to us’, other evidence would be considered as the trial progressed.

This included forensic material found at Bridger’s home – traces of her blood, plus charred fragments that appeared to be from a juvenile skull.


There would also be expert scientific and computer witness testimony, witness accounts, CCTV footage and scenes of crime evidence.


A series of police interviews with Bridger would also be shown.

The murder trial, which is expected to last seven weeks, continues this morning


The self-styled ‘survival and bushcraft’ expert accused of murdering April Jones played a ‘cruel game’ to try to cover up his crime, the jury was told.


Mark Bridger claims she died after he accidentally ran her over – and that he ‘blanked out’, losing all recollection of what he did with her body, the court heard.


According to the prosecution, the former lifeguard says he had originally intended to take her to get medical help, putting her into his Land Rover and driving her around the streets near their homes as she lay injured, dead or dying


He maintains that a combination of ‘drink, adrenaline and raw panic’ wiped out his recollection of subsequent events.


The 47-year-old ex-slaughterhouse worker could not explain to police why traces of the five-year-old’s blood and charred fragments of skull were found at his house, the jury was told

Prosecutor Miss Elwen Evans QC said: ‘He has played a cruel game in pretending not to know what he has done to her, and with her. Where he got rid of her body, how he got rid of her body – he says that he does not know, that he cannot remember. It’s a game to try to save himself and manipulate his way out of his full responsibility in what he has done.’


Bridger’s defence against charges of abduction, murder and perverting the course of justice was outlined yesterday for the first time in public as he went on trial seven months after April disappeared from outside her home in Machynlleth, West Wales.


Coral and Paul Jones sat hand in hand in court as details emerged of Bridger’s admission that he ‘killed or probably killed her’.


Miss Evans told the jury that on October 2, the day after April vanished, Bridger appeared to be ‘acting in a remarkably normal way’.


She added: ‘He said he knew nothing at all about her disappearance until that morning, the morning after her abduction. His story changed when he realised he had been seen abducting her and driving her away.


The court heard that he admitted he ‘must have’ disposed of her body but could not recall doing so.


He believed he had ‘put her out of the rain’ at one stage that day, but denied ever taking her to his home and said he did not sexually abuse her.


The jury was shown a photo of the cottage where Bridger lived – and where April’s blood and DNA were discovered.


Miss Evans told the jury: ‘This is the house where the blood, the bone fragments were found. That cottage is three miles from Machynlleth, called Mount Pleasant, and situated very close above the river there.


‘The defendant appears to have spent a lot of time outdoors, participating in what he calls survival and bushcraft.


‘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.


‘The defendant told people he had a career in the armed services, including the SAS, and had excelled during his military service.


‘Military records have of course been checked. His account of any career in the Army, in the forces, was a lie and a fantasy. He just never served in the Army.


In fact, Bridger worked in an abattoir between 2009 and 2012 and at the time of April’s disappearance was employed at a guest house.


Miss Evans said that he was ‘an experienced slaughterman who knew how to use knives professionally’.


She spent nearly an hour detailing and challenging Bridger’s version of events, adding: ‘We say he knows full well what he has done to April but chooses not to say.’


The prosecution case was that he abducted and murdered her – then went to ‘enormous lengths to try to cover up what he had done’, including trying unsuccessfully to remove any forensic evidence from his home.

'Someone has driven off with my little girl': Harrowing 999 call made by April Jones's mother

Mark Bridger wiped away tears in the dock as the court heard the harrowing 999 call made by April Jones’s mother after she was told her daughter had disappeared.

The distressing conversation was played to a silent court room as Coral Jones and her husband Paul listened from the public gallery


Members of the jury of nine women and three men were clearly upset and Bridger, who had shown little emotion throughout the day, shook his head and appeared to hold back tears. He then took a deep breath before wiping his eyes.

The court heard how the alarm was raised by April’s ten-year-old brother Harley at about 7.30pm on October 1, after a seven-year-old friend of hers told him she had seen April being driven away. Mrs Jones began the conversation with the 999 operator, then as she became more distraught she handed the phone over to friend and neighbour Valerie Jones.

Here is a transcript of what was said:

Coral Jones: ‘Please, my daughter’s been kidnapped from Bryn-y-Gog.’

Operator: ‘Hang on a second, tell me again, what did you say?’

Coral Jones: ‘My daughter was out playing with a friend and she’s been kidnapped.’

Operator: ‘You’ve been kidnapped?’ Coral Jones: ‘No, my daughter. She’s five years old. I’ve got to go.’

Valerie Jones:‘Apparently, what happened, she’s gone off in a car with somebody. Somebody’s picked her up in a car or something. We haven’t seen anything, we’ve just been told. It’s my friend’s daughter. She’s gone panicking, looking.’

Operator: ‘What’s the name of the child who’s gone missing?’

Valerie Jones: ‘April Jones.’

Operator: ‘How old is she?’ Valerie Jones: ‘Five.’ Operator: ‘And this just happened just literally minutes ago, did it?

Valerie Jones:‘Minutes ago, yes. She just said it’s a big grey car with a man driving. Everybody’s just scattered everywhere to go and look now and I’m just by the house.’

Operator: ‘How many people are out looking for her at the moment?’

Valerie Jones: ‘Her father, next-door neighbour, mother. She’s heading this way, back this way at the moment.’

Operator: ‘Is she OK, do you want me to speak? Hello, do you want me to speak to Coral?’

Coral Jones in the background, sobbing: ‘Come home. Somebody’s kidnapped April. Just come home please. Somebody’s kidnapped April, somebody’s kidnapped April.’


THE CHILD PORN FILES: WHAT POLICE FOUND ON BRIDGER'S LAPTOP



The jury was told that Bridger began creating folders of child porn images and pictures of April’s teenage half-sisters in May 2012 – five months before April disappeared.


The ‘distressing images’ were discovered on Bridger’s Acer laptop in his front room behind a white leather sofa.


Prosecutor Miss Evans said: ‘In his pictures library among family holiday photographs we see several folders.


‘In a folder named “clothes” we see some children who are unknown and some who are familiar.


‘Caroline Dickinson was the victim of a murder in France and images of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman from the Soham case.


‘There is an image of Jessica Lunsford, who was a murder victim in the US.’


The judge, Mr Justice Griffith Williams, told the jury: ‘You would not be required to look at this evidence unless I was satisfied of its importance.’
.

[Nedusa]

That was a difficult post to read, good job compiling all that info. I'm reading the words in stunned disbelief that a man could actually stand in court and plead his innocence in the weight of so much evidence forensic and witness statements etc.

Could there ever only be one realistic outcome from this trial...

And for him to say he can't remember after he brutally raped tortured and killed her where he buried her body because he was drunk shows the utter disregard he has for this girl and her grieving family.

As I have stated in previous posts he should be removed from society to a place of absolute incarceration and should stay there until he draws his last breath....!!!!

[Cherie]

I feel sick after reading that. The parents having to sit through that.

[Iceman]

Found guilty of Murder, Abduction and perverting the course of justice. Sentencing this afternoon.

[Cherie]

Good.

[Iceman]

Sentencing is actually at 2pm

[Marc]

Was it ever a doubt he didn't do it

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Marc

Was it ever a doubt he didn't do it

No but people have gotten away with murder before.

[bbfan1991]

RIP April and my thoughts are with her loved ones.

I hope that her evil killer rots in hell!