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00:00The following program contains distressing scenes.
00:07Police are saying tonight that they're increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of April Jones, a five-year-old girl from McKinley.
00:16When I get the first call from the police, it always raises the heart rate a little, thinking about what they're going to be dealing with.
00:23I always feel pleased to know that someone wants to call on my expertise, but at the same time it's a challenge
00:29and I want to be able to respond to that effectively.
00:32On that initial call, I'm looking to find out as much information as I can about the circumstances,
00:38about the victim or the person who we're dealing with, what actions the police have taken already,
00:44and then thinking about what are the next steps and how we move forward.
00:48When someone goes missing, the first few hours are absolutely critical.
00:52We talk about the golden hour. It's not actually a defined hour, but it is that early time
00:56when we need to make sure we are following leads quickly.
01:00If they're calling me, this is going to be serious.
01:03The town is a beautiful town. It's your typical Welsh town.
01:27It was always a warm welcome. You went in the shops, people kind of got to know you.
01:37It was just one of those nice, friendly places.
01:39My Chantleth is a small, close-knit community, population in the region of 2,000 people.
01:48And the community spirit during the course of the investigation, particularly initially, was overwhelming.
01:54Not just those who live within the community, but then those who, you know, came from afar, really,
02:00to assist with the search, which was a significant and a main line of investigation for us.
02:06That investigation began on the 1st of October 2012, when a vulnerable little girl went missing from close to her home.
02:18We didn't really know anything about April's family before she went missing.
02:24People who knew them said they were a normal family.
02:27They didn't have anything out of the ordinary going on in their lives.
02:33They would take the children to school, come home, just that typical family.
02:38April was five years old, someone who attended a local school in Machantleth.
02:45You know, she was a child who suffered from mild cerebral palsy.
02:50Her mum and dad had been to her parents' evening.
02:52She was doing exceptionally well in school.
02:55And she went for her swimming lesson.
02:57Her sister picked her up during the course of the early evening.
03:00This was all captured on CCTV footage that was obtained by Devad Powys Police.
03:07April comes home.
03:08Mum then is asked by April if she can go and play with some friends on her bicycle.
03:14In the area that they were living in, I think it's fair to say that, you know, the majority of parents felt comfortable and confident in leaving their children play within the grounds, if you like.
03:26And because she'd done particularly well in school, her mum allowed her to spend a little bit more time out than maybe she would have ordinarily.
03:34The brother of April, who at the time was about nine years old, was asked by mum to go and find April, bring her home.
03:49But what mum was then faced with was her son coming into the house and basically saying that he'd been told by one of April's friends that she'd gone into the vehicle and been taken.
03:59A call came in from the mother into the forced communication centre, as would normally be the case on a three-nines call.
04:10Hi, police emergency.
04:12I've stopped being kidnapped.
04:15I live in jail.
04:16I've been a dog.
04:17Hang on.
04:17Sal, can you speak something?
04:20Hello.
04:21And what makes you think the dog has been kidnapped?
04:23Well, apparently, she's gone off in a car with somebody.
04:26Somebody's picked up in a car or something.
04:27OK, what's the name of the child that's gone missing?
04:30April Jones.
04:32April, how old is she?
04:33Five.
04:35During the course of the call, the mum has informed police officers that a five-year-old daughter has been kidnapped and that it was a big grey vehicle or car and that there was a man driving.
04:46Initially, with regards to a call such as that, it has to be what we would refer to in policing as an overt response in the first instance.
04:57It is a crime in action.
04:59It's about getting as many resources to the area concerned because, obviously, there is a life at risk at that particular time.
05:06The first actions, if you like, are to make sure that we can send officers to the scene to try and identify where this has occurred, to try and trace any potential witnesses to the incident, and, obviously, to speak to family and friends in order to try and establish the circumstances surrounding this particular case.
05:26It's a very fast-moving investigation at that particular point in time.
05:32To help with that investigation, police called on the expertise of Charlie Hedges, the manager for missing, abducted and kidnapped children, at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
05:45When I got the phone call at 8 o'clock in the evening, shortly after April had gone missing, it was from a detective chief inspector who was involved with the case, and he wanted to know whether the force should be using Child Rescue Alert as a way of releasing information at high speed to the media to try and encourage calls from the public, and it also then filters through to a dedicated line so the information goes directly to the police.
06:11And also, she was explaining about the circumstances, so we could consider various options for the start of the investigation as well.
06:22We knew that April had got into a van and had been driven off.
06:26It feasibly could have been that there was an innocent explanation behind it, but at the same time, we had to be alert to more serious consequences.
06:33When we've got a child that's missing, it's important to understand the individual and their behaviour and habits, understand the circumstances that they're going missing.
06:45Is there anywhere else that we can find out information about what's gone on, any witnesses, any CCTV or anything else that will help us to understand what's going on and think about how we're best going to deploy resources to try and find where she's gone?
06:59Advising remotely is always a challenge, because you're not connected directly with the case and seeing how things are unfolding.
07:08However, it was the way we had to operate.
07:10My decision was to stay on the phone and stay in contact and then take it from there.
07:17On the ground in Machenslef, word was starting to spread about April's abduction.
07:22My mum was someone who used Facebook, like many people do.
07:27Information was put onto Facebook that April had been taken, and that prompted, you know, certainly lots of people within the community who were active on social media to come across that information.
07:39Took it upon themselves then to come to the area where April had been taken from and to try and start searching for April.
07:48Certainly the first officers who attended were faced with a fairly challenging and chaotic situation in that you've got, you know, quite a significant number of members of the public from within the community, rightly so, wanting to assist in trying to search for April.
08:05Very early on, people were going out and searching on their own, and then all of a sudden the police and the Mountain Rescue and all the organisations decided we need to have a better coordination of what's going on,
08:20because people were going up on the hills without any kind of coordination or knowing what they were doing, really.
08:27So very quickly they brought everybody together, and we played a part in that as a radio station, because we were telling people, let's not all go out there now, let's come to the leisure centre, let's get into groups,
08:39then we can all go out and search in the areas that the police wanted us to search in and where the Mountain Rescue wanted us to search in.
08:46This is the scene at the local community centre where hundreds of people are still waiting for news.
08:52Many of them have been involved in searches throughout the day.
08:55After the first few hours, it was well-organised, and it became one of the biggest search operations ever in the UK to find April Jones.
09:15October 2012, and in the small Welsh town of Machanleth, vulnerable five-year-old April Jones had been missing for two and a half hours.
09:26Of the resources available, the media is obviously a main line of inquiry for us in terms of being able to publicise what April looked like,
09:37the brief circumstances of her disappearance, in order to seek support, really, and assistance from the general public and anyone else
09:44who may be able to give us information as to her whereabouts.
09:48So on that basis, it was important that we got, you know, a photo of April and information to the media as soon as practicable in order to get, hopefully, a response from the public.
10:01Given that the incident happened at 7.30 in the evening, we were aware that, you know, 10 o'clock news is very popular for many, many of its audiences,
10:11so we took the opportunity to try and share information and provide a briefing to the media in readiness that they could be circulated at that point in time.
10:22Police are saying tonight that they're increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of a five-year-old girl from Machanleth.
10:28April Jones, they say, was last seen playing with her friend on their bikes near to garages in the town at around 7.30 this evening.
10:37The police were able to provide the media with plenty of information during that briefing because, crucially, the abduction had been witnessed.
10:45April, at the time that she was taken, was with a seven-year-old friend who was present at the scene.
10:55You've got to consider the vulnerability of a seven-year-old, the time of day, what that seven-year-old had actually observed and experienced.
11:03Obviously, the awareness of all these people around the area, what's going on.
11:07So we had to put into context what we were being told in terms of what that seven-year-old witness had observed at the time.
11:13It was a crucial bit of evidence.
11:16But we've got to look for other lines of inquiry, other intelligence information, which hopefully can corroborate what the seven-year-old was telling us to assist us in terms of trying to identify, firstly, where April may be, and, you know, as importantly, who had taken April.
11:35So this is Brynagog.
11:37This is a quiet residential estate.
11:40This is where April would have been spending her time playing with her friends.
11:45Fairly relaxed area where her parents were comfortable for her to spend time with others, playing on their bicycles and just enjoying as children of that age would do, really.
11:58When the incident occurred on the night of October 2012, things changed dramatically in this area.
12:09April was taken from this area here.
12:14This is also the area where, facing outwards, a vehicle described by her friend as being big at the rear and smaller at the front.
12:25It was parked.
12:26We know from the evidence provided by the friend that April got into the left-hand side driver's side of the vehicle.
12:35Initially, that took some further sort of understanding in terms of trying to work out how that would have actually happened in reality, because I think, you know, certainly from my perspective, may have expected that April would have got into one of the other doors of the vehicle with the offender.
12:53The fact that she got into a vehicle with someone else, did she get into it willingly, was it someone just giving her a lift, or was it something more serious?
13:05And we needed to understand exactly what was happening.
13:08As the search for both April and her abductor continued, it became clear that finding this vehicle and its owner could hold the key to both their whereabouts.
13:23It's always crucial to gather information as quickly as possible, because people have, witnesses have that information fresh in their minds, evidence is undisturbed.
13:32But also, people can move further away from where they were, so the search areas get larger.
13:38And obviously, the longer more time elapses, the greater the concern for the safety and welfare of April was growing.
13:45And we wanted to be able to try and find her and look after her as quickly as we possibly could.
13:51I turned on the television, and at that time, there was information on Sky News telling us about the disappearance of a girl in Wales.
13:59Police are asking for anyone with any information to call them.
14:03They're giving the number out as 101, the number to call if they do have any information about a five-year-old girl from Mahinle.
14:11It quickly led to a huge influx of calls from across the country with people wanting to help and assist.
14:17One of the basic tenets of Child Rescue Alert is to alert people and encourage them to call in.
14:25But the problem we had, the calls were going all over the place, so we decided to use it as a mechanism for,
14:31A, making sure that the right information was being shared,
14:34and secondly, that people knew which number to contact to pass that information on.
14:40This case was different from many we'd dealt with before because of the amount of social media that was used during the case
14:58and the widespread of information and the number of people who were responding to the case.
15:06As well as leaning on social media to help with the search,
15:09April's mum, Coral, bravely went before the cameras to ask for the public's help.
15:15April is only five years old.
15:18Please, please, help find her.
15:22In the hills, fields and forests surrounding April's home,
15:31there has been an increasingly desperate search, with police and public joining forces.
15:37We found out from the start, really, from social media,
15:40that something was going on when people started to use Twitter just to say,
15:44a little girl has gone missing.
15:47Suddenly, people were tweeting.
15:49It played a good part in terms of telling people what was going on.
15:55It brought people to the area to help with the search operation.
15:59The hashtags were there, people sending support for the family.
16:04How has the community responded generally, would you say?
16:07Well, I'm not from this community. I'm from the Lampeter area.
16:10You've actually driven across from Manchester, yeah?
16:12Yeah, it's a three-hour journey this morning.
16:14Sir, can I ask what brings you out here and being so determined to search?
16:16Yeah, they're friends of ours.
16:19It's a vast area with a limited population.
16:21At the same time, you get those working for the media on the ground, if you like,
16:25in Machuntleth, speaking to, you know, people within the community,
16:29people who were involved, all the volunteers who were involved with some of the searching,
16:33you know, and effectively knocking doors,
16:35trying to find out more information with regards to April and her family.
16:39It wasn't just the media and the people of Machuntleth driving the search for April.
16:47The police had also turned to specialists in the hope of locating her.
16:51Machuntleth itself is a town, obviously, in rural Mid-Wales.
16:57And in terms of the geography of the area,
17:01that presented some real challenges.
17:03From just moving outside the town centre where we are,
17:06you'll see that there's a lot more mountainous area, forestry,
17:10and all of that needed the support of a significant number of agencies
17:14with various skills and experience to be able to come
17:18and assist the police with the investigation,
17:21and particularly the main line of inquiry, which was the search for April.
17:24We're very fortunate to have a lot of volunteer people
17:29who want to give their time to searching for those who are lost,
17:34missing, and put their lives at risk of doing it sometimes.
17:38There's mountain rescue, lowland rescue,
17:41then there are specialists with dogs,
17:43people who go searching on bicycles and a whole range of different things.
17:46Then there's others who specialize at searching in caves
17:49and other difficult environments like that.
17:51So they will always step forward when there's a case
17:53who doesn't want to be involved.
17:55And so it's then for the local police and the police search advisor
17:58to coordinate that activity and deploy it
18:00in the most effective way possible.
18:04The search for April was exhaustive and, inevitably,
18:09in a small, tight-knit community,
18:12people started to speculate as to who might have taken her.
18:16So in a story like this, obviously, emotions are high,
18:18so it's quite a complex case to cover
18:22from the radio station's point of view.
18:24A lot of our presenters knew the listeners,
18:27and they were ringing in saying,
18:29oh, well, we definitely know that it could be this person that's taken her,
18:34or it could be that she's gone missing up this area.
18:38And they were giving us this information,
18:40and we very early on decided we were just going to report the facts.
18:45We were not going to go with any kind of theories or speculation,
18:49and we didn't want to put out any false information
18:51that it maybe upset the family.
18:53We didn't want to put out any speculation that got anyone else in trouble
18:58or that it could hinder the police's investigation.
19:02Some of the things we were feeding to the police,
19:05and then some of the things we were having to just say to people,
19:08listen, we hear what you're saying,
19:10but at the minute this has not been confirmed,
19:12so we're not going to report it,
19:14but thank you for letting us know about this.
19:18Controlling the spread of information was key,
19:21and as the second day of the investigation progressed,
19:24there was one piece regarding the vehicle that April had got into
19:28that the police took the decision to initially keep to themselves.
19:32When we established that the vehicle was a left-hand drive vehicle,
19:38we were able to gather information as to who owned that particular vehicle.
19:42The person who owned the vehicle was known as Mark Bridger.
19:46Police hunting for missing five-year-old April Jones now had a suspect.
20:03Local man, Mark Bridger.
20:06We conducted a number of background inquiries
20:08in order to establish as much information as we could
20:11in terms of, well, who is Mark Bridger?
20:13He was identified as a suspect,
20:16and we ensured then that I got a number of officers available
20:20and resources available so that we could attend a number of addresses
20:25that Mark Bridger was associated with
20:28in order, firstly, to try and find April Jones,
20:32but secondly, to try and identify and locate Mark Bridger.
20:37Obviously, at the time, we didn't really know much about Mark Bridger.
20:44We know that he knew April's family and knew April
20:49because he had children at the same school,
20:52so they kind of knew each other.
20:54People say, and people do say this afterwards,
20:56but that he was a bit of a loner
20:58and always said there was something about him
21:00that didn't sit right with them.
21:03We identified potentially four addresses that he had access to.
21:11We simultaneously attended each of those addresses
21:15in an effort to try and locate April Jones
21:18and, obviously, arrest Mark Bridger.
21:25There was one address in particular
21:27which turned out to be the home address of Mark Bridger.
21:30Bridger's home was then placed under surveillance by the police.
21:38When officers attended that address,
21:41entered the premises,
21:42Mark Bridger was nowhere to be seen.
21:45Obviously, we didn't locate April Jones either
21:47at that point in time.
21:50But what officers reported
21:52was that the premises were stifling hot,
21:55there was a roaring fire
21:58and that there was a very clear, distinctive smell
22:02of detergent and cleaning agents within the property.
22:11We were able to locate him at about 3.30pm
22:14during the afternoon of the 2nd.
22:15At the time, he was walking between Cairn Ljus,
22:21which is where his home was located,
22:23some four miles out of Machantleith town centre.
22:26When Mark Bridger was detained at the roadside,
22:29an urgent interview was conducted by the officer.
22:33And Mark Bridger's initial account was that
22:35he had been involved in a low-speed collision
22:39collision with a bicycle with a child on
22:43at the location where the alleged abduction
22:47had taken place.
22:49And that, as a result of colliding
22:52with the bicycle and the child,
22:54the child suffered some injuries.
22:57He panicked, wanted to see if he could assist the child,
23:03considered CPR,
23:05but felt that it wasn't appropriate
23:07because of the extent of injuries,
23:09placed the child in his vehicle,
23:12drove away from the scene,
23:15and then at some point
23:17during the course of the evening into the night,
23:20he has just lost his memory
23:22and is unable to assist us any further
23:25in terms of what happened to April Jones.
23:29Bridger was then detained at Aberystwyth Police Station
23:32and formally questioned,
23:34where he gave a near-identical account.
23:39I remember the dark-headed girl came behind the car.
23:43I started the car up.
23:45As I went to pull away,
23:48the car, there wasn't a thud.
23:50I can't understand.
23:52The car rose up.
23:54As I opened the car,
23:56I walked around.
23:56And underneath the front of the car
24:00is now I know to be April.
24:07She was only little.
24:09So I picked her up and put her across my seat
24:11and put her in what is the offside seat,
24:14the passenger seat.
24:15I tried to take her pulse
24:18and there was nothing.
24:21I put my mouth over her mouth
24:22and went low,
24:23put my hand back on the chest,
24:25and that's when I realised
24:26one side of her chest wasn't there.
24:30I'd obviously crushed...
24:32I'd obviously crushed her little body.
24:35So I then drove out of Brina Gorg.
24:42My intention was to get her medical help.
24:45And that's when I realised
24:46how life I'd gone out of her.
24:49Her lips were purple.
24:52All the coral are friends of mine.
24:55And I...
24:56I've killed their daughter.
25:00It's the next minute.
25:07And I made my house.
25:09And she's not there.
25:11But I can't remember what I've done.
25:17We can't disregard the initial account,
25:20but obviously we are, you know,
25:22not satisfied that that is the true circumstances
25:24of what has gone on.
25:26And, you know,
25:27we continue with a number of lines of inquiry.
25:30And speaking to as many witnesses,
25:33potential witnesses,
25:34to try and gain more information
25:36which can assist us in locating April.
25:42While officers conducted those inquiries,
25:45Andy John had to inform April's family
25:48of this significant development
25:50before the media did.
25:52It was extremely difficult for the family
25:55when they were informed
25:57that Mark Bridger was responsible
25:58for taking April.
26:00Given that they knew of Mark Bridger,
26:04you know,
26:04they actually knew who he was.
26:06He lived within the community.
26:07He had children within the community.
26:09It was somebody who was known to them,
26:11who'd actually been a, you know,
26:12a Facebook friend with the family.
26:15They probably found it a lot more difficult
26:17than had it been someone
26:18who was unknown to them.
26:19With Bridger in custody
26:24and April's family fully informed,
26:26the decision was made to brief the press.
26:29We have arrested a 46-year-old male
26:33from the Mychynllith area
26:35who has been detained at Aberystwyth Police Station.
26:40People had already told us
26:42that they thought it could be Mark Bridger
26:44because he was the only person
26:46that they knew
26:47drove a left-hand drive car.
26:51Also, people had started to say
26:54that Mark Bridger was a strange person
26:56and things like that.
26:58So it didn't come as a surprise,
27:00but we had to obviously report sensitively
27:03and there was real anger
27:05and we had to be careful
27:07how we reflected that on the radio.
27:11With a suspect detained,
27:13the police were able to widen the scope
27:15and nature of their search for April.
27:18I think we realised that the case was serious
27:20within a very short period of time.
27:23A five-year-old child wandering off,
27:25there can't be too many innocent explanations to that.
27:28Dufford-Prowse Police responded to it
27:32in an outstanding way.
27:33They threw everything they could at it.
27:36While the search for April escalated,
27:39so too did Bridger's questioning.
27:45So from the account provided by Mark Bridger,
27:49it was important for us to establish
27:52whether there was any evidence on the vehicle
27:54to indicate that it had come into a collision.
27:58I spent two days examining the vehicle.
28:03I was looking for signs of blood,
28:05possibly fibres.
28:07What I was looking for in the panels of the vehicles,
28:11especially low down,
28:12I was looking for fresh damage in the vehicle.
28:15This vehicle is a very, very old vehicle
28:17and the paintwork on it had been oxidised.
28:21So if he'd collided with April's bike,
28:25or April herself,
28:26would have seen damage,
28:28fresh damage,
28:29which would have taken the oxide off,
28:31and you'd have seen fresh paint there.
28:34There wasn't any.
28:35There was no damage consistent with a collision happening.
28:40At this scene,
28:40I was asked to examine the roadway,
28:43especially the kerbside
28:45and all the way out to the centre line on the roadway,
28:49and there was nothing found
28:50consistent with a collision.
28:52Given the size of the car,
28:56it weighs two tonnes.
28:58If it hit April's bicycle,
29:00it would have seen the damage on the vehicle,
29:03but more so would have seen damage on the bicycle,
29:07which was a small bicycle,
29:09and it would have sustained enough of a lot of damage,
29:13and there was absolutely no damage to it at all.
29:15The forensic examinations of Bridger's car and April's bike
29:22suggested his version of events was a complete lie.
29:26So police now turned their attention
29:28to trying to find out what had actually happened to April.
29:36This is Kainous.
29:38This is where the offender lived.
29:41It's a quiet,
29:43small,
29:44secluded residential area
29:46and just a few miles out of Machantleth.
29:57So this is the area
29:58where the offender's house once stood,
30:01and this,
30:02from an investigation perspective,
30:03is where the investigation took a turn.
30:07My team were first involved
30:09during the initial search for April's remains,
30:12and the contents of his wood-burning stove
30:16were recovered from the living room of his property.
30:20The examiner examined the contents of the fire,
30:25so the ash and all the debris that was contained in there,
30:28not really expecting to find any human material in there,
30:32but he identified some small fragments
30:35that he wasn't sure whether they were bone or not.
30:39They were less than a centimetre in size.
30:44They were white in colour, very fragile.
30:47Some of them resembled human bone to myself and my colleague,
30:52who are very experienced forensic anthropologists.
30:55Others required further testing.
30:57The results of those tests would take time,
31:01but the police were satisfied that in Bridger,
31:04they not only had the person responsible for April's disappearance,
31:08but also her murder.
31:10As the investigation proceeds,
31:18what we know changes.
31:19It becomes a murder investigation,
31:22but despite this,
31:24the objectives are still the same
31:26in terms we need to find the person who's gone missing,
31:30we need to secure evidence,
31:31we need to understand what's happened.
31:34The search and the investigation still has to continue,
31:37but we need to do that not only for the investigation,
31:39but also for the family to give them the answers they deserve
31:43when they've lost a loved one.
31:46Alongside the search for April,
31:47the police were looking to gather enough evidence
31:50to allow them to charge Bridger,
31:52and back at his home made another vital discovery.
31:57Some further examinations in front of the fire,
31:59the hearth,
32:01identified a pooling of blood
32:03which was recovered from underneath the carpet.
32:07from my perspective,
32:09indicated that, you know,
32:11something significant had happened
32:13in front of the hearth to April.
32:15That blood sample was submitted for testing,
32:18alongside more blood found in Bridger's bathroom.
32:22Its DNA profile was a match to April Jones.
32:25When these findings were put to Bridger,
32:28he desperately tried to explain them away.
32:30The only explanation I've got is obviously
32:37if I've got blood on my hands,
32:39if I haven't dried my hands,
32:41you flick your hands,
32:42I've gone for a week.
32:43So it's possibly a transfer of blood
32:45from having some sort of blood on my hands.
32:51Obviously there was only a very minute amount of blood,
32:54which I've said from the beginning,
32:55I never, ever recalled having blood
32:58from the injury or from April.
33:00Can you make that?
33:01On me.
33:01Yeah, on me.
33:02I stopped you there.
33:02Yes, sorry, yes.
33:12There is sufficient evidence
33:14to charge Mark Bridger
33:15with the murder of April Jones.
33:18When Mark Bridger got charged,
33:23the community really did change.
33:25It changed to anger towards this man.
33:32But because of the community spirit that they had,
33:35because of how everybody looked out
33:38for everybody else in that town,
33:39it just added to the weight of shock and anger
33:43for what this guy had done.
33:45And also the way that it was done as well.
33:48They were just so angry with what had gone on
33:51and so upset and heartbroken.
33:54When you get to the point of charge,
33:57in a sense,
33:58it's then that the work begins.
34:01Would the evidence that we presented the jury
34:04prove on their part beyond reasonable doubt
34:07that Mark Bridger had abducted
34:09and murdered April Jones?
34:11Whilst we were confident that we had a strong case,
34:15there was a concern that
34:17how would that case come across to the jury
34:20given that we hadn't located April's body?
34:33Five days after April Jones went missing,
34:36Mark Bridger was charged with her murder.
34:38The police now set about building a case to take to court
34:42with forensic science at the forefront.
34:46We didn't test the fragments themselves for DNA
34:50because we were certain that given the condition of the bone,
34:54the fact that it was calcined,
34:56there would be no DNA left.
34:58three of the fragments had characteristics
35:03that looked very human.
35:05So straight away,
35:07I was fairly confident
35:10that we were looking at human bone.
35:14We also looked at some archaeological skeletons
35:18and did some comparative analysis
35:20to give ourselves an age range of the deceased
35:24and based on the appearance of the comparative fragments,
35:29the size and thickness of the skull,
35:31the appearance of the sutures,
35:32we signed an age range of between four and eight years.
35:38Bridger's defence team presented us
35:40with a list of animals
35:42that he said he'd put on the fire.
35:46There were 17 in total.
35:47We'd looked at the shape and the structure of the bone.
35:51We'd done scanning electron microscopy.
35:54We'd compared it to animal bones.
35:56But we still felt that we didn't have enough
36:00to say, with as much confidence as we would like,
36:03to meet the requirements of the court
36:05that the bone was definitely human.
36:07So we wanted to do histological analysis of the bone.
36:12Histological analysis
36:13is the microscopic examination of tissues
36:16to study their structure.
36:18We had a friend and colleague
36:20who works at the Forensic Institute in Milan,
36:24Professor Christina Cattaneo,
36:25who is world-renowned for using that technique
36:30to distinguish whether it remains a human or animal.
36:33And she found that there were no features in there
36:37that suggested that the bone was animal.
36:41The problem that Professor Cattaneo had
36:45was that she was looking at a very small field of vision.
36:49However, the osteons were consistent
36:51with human osteons and human bone structure.
36:56Osteons are the fundamental structural
36:58and functional units of compact bone.
37:01She assigned a very high level of confidence to it.
37:07We were very conscious of the small amount of bone
37:11that we had to work with,
37:12but we were very cognizant of the fact
37:17that this was all that the family had.
37:19We were just very conscious
37:21that we didn't want to do anything
37:22that was going to be unnecessary
37:25and anything that the family didn't want.
37:30The bone evidence was strong but not conclusive,
37:34so the police looked to digital forensics
37:36to further support their case.
37:39Myself and my team were focusing on Bridger's laptop,
37:44and we had to carry out our own analysis
37:47to verify the findings by both the police
37:51and the defence expert
37:53who'd already carried out their investigation.
37:57We identified images of murder,
38:02not specifically relating to April,
38:06but other murder cases involving children.
38:11There were also cartoon images
38:14of sexual abuse of children
38:18and general images,
38:22inappropriate, indecent material involving children.
38:27The internet history
38:29clearly showed a build-up of activity
38:34prior to the disappearance of April,
38:39a lull in activity
38:41whilst the disappearance was happening,
38:45and then, post the event,
38:48files were being deleted.
38:53It was clear from the evidence found
38:57that Bridger had an interest in the local girls,
39:02potentially could be deemed as stalking them
39:05by downloading material from Facebook profiles.
39:09That in itself provided some real concerns
39:14in terms of what potentially could have happened
39:17beyond the point of taking April
39:20had we not been able to arrest Mark Bridger for the offence.
39:25All the evidence on the laptop
39:27supported the prosecution case
39:29that Mark Bridger had abducted and murdered April Jones,
39:34and that it was premeditated and sexually motivated.
39:40The police had built a robust case against Bridger.
39:43However, the search for April had been unsuccessful.
39:53Although Bridger had admitted
39:54he was probably responsible for April Jones' death,
39:58he had denied the charges of murder and abduction,
40:01so his trial commenced on the 29th of April 2013
40:05at Mould Crown Court.
40:12People were hopeful that Mark Bridger
40:15was going to get the sentence that he deserved,
40:18and there is no sentence that you could give
40:21to somebody like this,
40:22but they were hoping that he was going to go away for life
40:25and never come out,
40:26never be in a position to treat people
40:29or treat anyone in this way again.
40:32And I think the whole town wanted justice
40:35for April's family.
40:37And because it happened in this town,
40:39they had become known for what had gone on as well,
40:42so they wanted justice for themselves as well.
40:45We were confident that the evidence that we had
40:49proved our case in terms of April being abducted
40:52and murdered.
40:55But not having been able to locate April's body
40:59did present some concern, if you like,
41:03that, you know,
41:04how would the case come across to the jury?
41:09From my perspective,
41:11one of the critical moments at trial
41:13was when the evidence was presented
41:15by the seven-year-old witness via video link.
41:17The witness was exceptional
41:19in terms of how she was able to recall
41:23in a clear way what had occurred at the scene
41:27at the time that April was taken.
41:30And when cross-examined by defence,
41:32she maintained her account,
41:34came across as, you know, open and honest.
41:38And that, for me, was a key point at trial
41:40in terms of being able to provide real strong evidence
41:44to the jury that, you know,
41:46the subduction and murder had actually taken place.
41:50It must have been really hard for April's family
41:52to be seeing what was going on
41:55and to be at the trial.
41:57We respected them when they were going to court.
42:01Obviously, we didn't want to approach them
42:02and do interviews with them.
42:04But you could see that the strain was getting to them.
42:07Of course it would.
42:08After a month-long trial,
42:13the jury went out to consider its verdict.
42:16And after just four hours,
42:18it had reached its decision.
42:22When Bridger was found guilty by the jury,
42:26it was a moment in a sense of mixed emotions
42:28on the basis that,
42:30from a criminal justice perspective,
42:33we'd secured a conviction.
42:35You know, that was tinged slightly by the fact
42:38that, obviously, we'd not located April for the family.
42:43We are relieved that Mark Bridger
42:45has today been found guilty
42:47of the murder of our beautiful daughter, April.
42:51April will be forever in our hearts
42:53and we are so moved by the overwhelming support
42:56we have had from so many people
42:58from all over the world.
42:59For his crimes,
43:04Bridger was sentenced to a whole-life order,
43:07meaning he will never be considered for parole
43:09and will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
43:12This is the toughest sentence he could have got.
43:19So there was the relief that justice had been done.
43:26But at the same time,
43:27there was that realisation
43:29that the town will never be the same again.
43:32Following Bridger's conviction,
43:37the decision was made
43:38to permanently remove any evidence
43:41of his terrible crime
43:42from the Welsh landscape.
43:44However, the scars still remain.
43:49This area is an idyllic area.
43:51It's very quaint.
43:53It's secluded, very peaceful.
43:54And it's, you know,
43:58it's difficult to comprehend
44:00how something as horrendous,
44:01as horrific as what occurred
44:03on the 1st of October 2012
44:05could have happened
44:06in such a beautiful location.
44:10It's very powerful to be back here
44:12in the area where
44:14a young five-year-old vulnerable child
44:17has had her life taken away from her
44:20in such tragic circumstances.
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