All language subtitles for Britains.Most.Evil.Killers.S02E02.WEBRip.en

♪♪

-On the 3rd of October, 2012,

Coral Jones gave an emotional
televised appeal

for the safe return
of her daughter, April.

The 5-year-old had been
missing for 36 hours.

She had vanished while
playing outside her home

in the rural Welsh town
of Machynlleth.

-[ Sobbing ] There must
be someone out there

who knows where she is

and can help at least find her.

We are desperate for any news.

April is only 5 years old.

Please...

Please, help find her.

-The entire community
came together

to help the police search
for the missing girl.

There was a real hope
that April would be found alive.

-They were all thinking,
and, of course,

her parents were thinking,
she is gonna be found.

There is no doubt in my mind
that she is going to be found.

-But the search
would be in vain.

A local 46-year-old man
named Mark Bridger,

who was known to the family,

had abducted and murdered April.

I said, "I love you.
I'll see you later,

and I'll come tuck
you into bed,"

and she said, "I love you" back,

and that was the last time
I saw her.

-Mark Bridger had
undeniably become

one of the world's
most evil killers.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It was a crime that
shocked the nation

and left a family heartbroken.

In October, 2012,

5-year-old April Jones
was abducted

whilst playing outside her home

on the Bryn-y-Gog estate

in the small town of Machynlleth
in mid Wales.

As news of April's disappearance
spread through the media,

police and volunteers scoured
the town and countryside,

kick-starting what was to become

the biggest search
for a missing person

in the history
of British policing.

-She's got to be
around here somewhere.

She's got to be. We will search,
and we will go miles.

We will travel miles
to find her.

-...but April's body
would never be found.

She'd been abducted and murdered

by 46-year-old Mark Bridger,

a local man and well-known
member of the community.

April's sister, Jazmin,

was just 16 years old
at the time.

-I kind of just knew him.

Mum and Dad knew him, would say,
"Hi, are you all right,"

a quick sort of
chat in the street

about cars and bikes and that.

When I was walking past,
just kind of quick "hello,"

and off he went.

-After Bridger's arrest,

police searched his laptop

and found indecent pictures
of children

and screenshots of young girls
from the area

taken from their
social media accounts.

Local reporter Ciaran Jones
reported on the case.

-When you look at what was found
on Bridger's laptop,

there are few ways
that this case

could have been more troubling.

When you see images
of April Jones,

it's clear that Bridger
had this grotesque fascination

with young girls,

with those type of scenarios,

where young girls were
abducted and killed,

and that absolutely is something

that is condemning,
condemning evidence.

-This killer's story begins
over 50 years ago.

Mark Bridger was born
in Carshalton, Surrey,

on the 6th of November, 1965.

He grew up in a happy
family environment

with his parents
and two siblings.

-There weren't
any indications for me

in terms of Mark Bridger's
childhood or his adolescence

that would indicate
that he'd go on

to do something horrendous.

He did seem to be an altogether
very average young lad,

and there were no red flags.

-His childhood was normal
compared to most people.

He came from
a middle-class family.

His father was a police officer,

which he actually look up to.

-But by 1984,

18-year-old Bridger
had gone off the rails.

He'd dropped out of college

and struggled
to hold a job down.

-All the jobs he got --
He was a bit of a failure.

So by the age of 20,
this guy is, like...

He failed in school.
He failed in college.

He failed on whatever
he wanted to do.

-In 1984, Bridger had
his first brush with the law.

-He was convicted of theft
and a firearms offense,

and, basically, the story
that he concocted around this

was that he'd planned to go
and fire an old pistol

at a friend's farm,

and he'd stolen a car because
it was too far for him to walk,

which does seem to be
rather ludicrous,

and the prosecution
thought that, actually,

something altogether different
had gone on.

He was planning to actually
carry out an armed robbery

with this weapon
and this stolen car.

So what Mark Bridger is doing
from this point is,

he's getting used to lying,
to being comfortable in a lie,

to maintaining a lie,

and this is something he'll do
throughout his life.

-Bridger was placed on
probation for two years,

and he struggled to find work.

He lived in a fantasy world,

often telling people
he had a military background.

-There were tales
that he'd been a soldier,

that he'd been a lifeguard,

that he might have worked
in a meat factory,

and when you boiled it down,

you realized that
nobody really knew.

He was wearing
military fatigues,

wearing a camouflage jacket
and camouflage trousers,

waterproof over-trousers,

almost like he thought he was
some kind of action-man figure,

you know, and driving about
in his Land Rover,

projecting
this image of himself

as, I don't know,
a brave father,

as someone who'd, you know,
done his duty for his country,

and that wasn't a reality
whatsoever.

-This is a very common thing
that happen,

not only with killers,

but it happens with
other people, as well.

You tend to make up
for your failings

by creating things that will
impress other people.

You want people to not
look at you like, "Okay.

Dude, you're a loser.
Get out."

So he starts making
these stories

to try to bring himself up
in front of others,

like, "I've been to the Army.

I did a tour of Vietnam,
or I did a tour of Iraq."

-Mark Bridger and secrecy
do go hand-in-hand.

You've got the Mark Bridger

that he's presenting
to the outside world

who's this kind of heroic figure

who has traveled the world,

who is this alpha male,

but actually, on the inside,
you got somebody who is

fundamentally ashamed
of themselves,

and that's something that
they want to keep secret.

He doesn't like who he is.

He isn't the kind of man
that he thinks he should be,

but he's become so comfortable

in lying and elaborating
and exaggerating

that he just continues
to do that.

-In 1990, Bridger moved away

from his home
in the south of England

and relocated to Machynlleth,

a market town
near the Welsh coast.

-Machynlleth in
North Wales, in Powys,

is that it's a tiny
rural community

where everyone knows
pretty much everybody else,

where no one would appear to be
threatening in the least.

-Bridger moved from job to job,

including working as a lifeguard
and in abattoir.

-I think Mark Bridger
was somebody

who had a significant history
of failing at things,

of failing at jobs,
of failing at relationships

and of developing
a bit of a reputation

in the local community,

and I think what he was doing
by moving to Machynlleth

was basically starting over,

wiping the slate clean

and trying to control
the amount of information

that people had about
him and his life.

-By the age of 20,

Bridger had fathered
his first child,

but he'd left his partner
before the birth

to start another relationship.

It was a pattern
that would repeat itself.

-He has a total of six children
with four different women,

but none of those relationships
seems to stick around.

He was always there, gone,
often with the women

not really knowing
a great deal about him.

-He doesn't manage
to hold down a relationship

in the same way he doesn't
manage to hold down a job,

and when he doesn't
get what he wants,

he tends to start
using violence.

-In 2004, Bridger was
charged with battery

against his girlfriend,

and just three years later,

he was convicted of assault

after punching a man
in the face.

By October, 2012,

Bridger was living alone.

-So he now didn't have a job,

didn't have the girlfriend
with the baby,

and now got away
from his father and mother.

So it was a triple-wham there.

My guess is that he was feeling
extremely low.

So it could be that his interest
for little kids started then.

-He does start
to kind of withdraw

and spend a lot of time
on his own,

spends a lot of time
on his laptop computer,

and on that computer,
there are images of children

in the local community
who are known to him.

There are pictures of
child-abuse imagery

on his laptop.

He's pushing the boundaries

of what's acceptable
and what's not acceptable,

of what's legal
and what's illegal,

and it's all becoming
incredibly blurred.

-Just a few miles across town
from Mark Bridger's cottage,

5-year-old April Jones
could often be seen

playing on the street
in front of her family home.

-April's character is really
bubbly, really happy,

constantly smiling,
constantly laughing.

So if you're ever
feeling sad or down,

she'd basically be there,

and she'd make you laugh
in an instant,

and she got, like,
a really contagious smile.

Like, you just see her smile,
so you'd want to smile.

She was just a happy, fun,
bubbly little girl.

-April's bike was
a constant companion.

For a young girl
who had cerebral palsy,

she didn't let her disabilities
slow her down.

-We taught her to ride the bike
from a young age.

So she's been on a bike
constantly.

So she'd never ever be
without her bike.

If she wants to go out,
or if we were gonna go

down the street to shop,
it was on her bike.

You couldn't get her to walk.

It was on her bike,
and that was that.

-On Monday,
October the 1st, 2012,

the two sisters were together

at the local swimming pool
with their mum, Coral.

-Every Monday, April used
to get swimming lessons.

So I'd always meet my mum
and April in the lesson.

So when I got off the bus,
take April in to get changed

and to her swimming lesson,
and then meet her afterwards.

So she finished
the swimming lesson.

It was about a half an hour.

Went in, got her changed,
come back out.

She's walking out,
and went back home.

I went to the youth club.

I said, "I love you.
I'll see you later,

and I'll come tuck you into bed
and everything,"

and she said, "I love you" back,

and that was the last time
I saw her.

-On the evening of
October the 1st, 2012,

5-year-old April Jones
was playing outside

the front of her family home

on the Bryn-y-Gog estate
in Machynlleth, Mid Wales.

April's mum and dad,
Coral and Paul,

had just returned
from a parents' evening

at the local school.

-It was still light that day.

So I went to let April out
a little bit longer

because of the good
school report,

and there was three
of her friends,

and her and her friend cycled
their other friend back home,

and then it was just her and her
friend that were coming back.

-At around 7:20 p.m.,
Coral grew concerned

that her daughter had been out
a little too long.

She sends April's
younger brother out

to look for her.

-And then Harley came
running back with the bike,

saying, "She's gone.
She's not there.

She's been taken,"
and then that's when it

kind of all escalated.

-Detective Superintendent
Reg Bevan was part

of the investigation team.

-When the call first comes in,

there's a crime in action
in effect.

So April's mum makes
the initial call

to say that her daughter
has gone off in a vehicle.

That is treated as
an abduction, kidnap,

and the initial response
is very much to secure the area,

try to identify the last person
to see her

and identifying people who were
in the area at the time.

-Detectives immediately
questioned April's young friends

who had seen her get into a car
with a stranger.

-And they gave
this basic description

of a small front
and a large rear to a vehicle,

and they couldn't be
more specific,

but these are children,
young children,

but it was a key piece
of evidence,

particularly when
they talk about

how she got into
the right-hand side,

and they were quite sure
of that.

-I think the real crucial detail
they were able to drill down

very, very quickly
was that April may have

got into what would
ordinarily appear

to be the driver's side,

which indicated perhaps that it
was a left-hand drive vehicle.

I think that was very,
very quickly seized upon

as something that was unusual,

something that could perhaps
be decisive in the investigation

because, other than that,

initially,
there didn't seem to be

a great deal
for the police to go on,

because she'd been seized
very, very quickly,

very, very discretely,
with only children as witnesses.

-Meanwhile, the local community
in Machynlleth

rallied around the Jones family

and assisted the police
in their search for April.

News of her disappearance
quickly spread on social media.

-Machynlleth is
such a small town.

You just wouldn't think of...

I think we have a population
of about 2,500,

maybe a bit more,
maybe a bit less.

-Five, six, seven...

-The amount of people
that came out of their houses

and just started searching,
of all sort of ages,

all sorts of ages,

it was just incredible
to even see.

Like, they've all kind of
come out

just to look
for my little sister,

and it's kind of breathtaking,
in a way,

to see the amount of people
and how close Machynlleth is,

how close the community is.

-From the very first day,
I think the police were using

the word "unprecedented"

in terms of the scale
of the search,

and that was certainly true.

I remember arriving
in Machynlleth

and immediately
hearing the constant swashing

of rotor blades,

seeing boat teams coming in
from Mountain Rescue,

seeing cavers,

every conceivable
emergency service,

every conceivable specialism
was there very, very quickly,

and then you had the public
element of the search,

where people were splitting
into small teams,

dividing up an area on a map
and going out and fanning out

and covering
what area they could.

People,
at the most rudimentary level,

going out with torches
and calling April's name.

So you had an unprecedented
police search,

involving, I think, in the end,
dozens and dozens of forces

covering dozens and dozens
of square kilometers.

-Despite an exhaustive search
by police and volunteers

stretching into the early hours,

April could not be found.

The small town was in shock.

-I remember one of the people
I spoke to said,

"It can't have been somebody
from the area

because we all know one another.

We all trust one another."

-It almost defies belief

when that sort of thing happens
in a small rural community

because, somehow,
you immediately think

that everybody knows
everybody else's business,

and that it's impossible.

How can a child disappear
into the thin air

in a tiny Welsh village

in which everybody pretty much
knows everybody else?

But that's the devil
in plain sight, isn't it?

-Witness reports of
a distinctive blue Land Rover

on the Bryn-y-Gog estate

gave the police a crucial lead
in their investigation.

-It was said on the night
that she got into a car

that was on the wrong side,
and, straight away,

everyone knew we were looking
for a left-hand drive,

and there's only person
in Machynlleth

who had a left-hand drive,

and that was Mark Bridger.

Where we used to live,
he kind of lived,

like, at the end,

sort of just above everyone,

and he was kind of,
"Oh, hi. Are you all right,"

in the street sort of thing.

I didn't know his name.
I just knew his face.

He was always in combat
trousers, always.

-Mark Bridger was named by some
of the residents living locally

in the house-to-house
investigation,

and then once he's been named,

and when you compare
the description given

by the children of the vehicle
that April Jones got into,

and then some work
that we were able to do

behind the scenes
with the analysts,

we were able to link
the Land Rover discovery

to Mark Bridger,
and then, all of a sudden,

things start to fall into place.

♪♪

-The following morning,
Tuesday, October the 2nd,

the small market town
of Machynlleth

awoke to a media swarm.

April had now been missing

for 12 hours.

-I've been saying this
from the very beginning.

We still have hope.

-It was a fast moving,
very emotional place.

People were desperate.

People were filled with hope,

and people were galvanized

to go out there
and to find someone,

and those people
that were there generally,

beyond perhaps knowing
the family or knowing the area

or knowing them in passing,

had no personal connection,
in a lot of cases.

They wanted to go out
and find a vulnerable child,

and there was lots
and lots of hope

and just sheer determination.

People saying, "I can't sleep.

I can't go home. I can't rest.

I can't do anything while I know
that somebody is out there,"

and that was incredibly stark
and incredibly moving.

-The police were desperate
to find Mark Bridger,

and they soon had
a major breakthrough.

His distinctive blue Land Rover

had been found
at a local garage.

It had been dropped off

that same morning.

-They didn't really disclose

too much about his demeanor

other than he dropped it off,

suggesting it had been involved
in an accident,

and they were quite happy
to have a look at it,

and from what they had seen,
it didn't appear to have been

involved in any kind
of road accident.

-The police continued
their manhunt.

They hoped that finding Bridger

would lead them
directly to April.

-We were still hoping
that she would be alive.

So it was very much,
speed is of the essence.

So you had to ensure
that you were doing

as much as you could
as quickly as you could

in an effort
to identify where she was.

-Having dropped off his car

the morning after
April's disappearance,

Bridger met a search party
looking for the 5-year-old.

He was hiding in plain sight.

-Mark Bridger had effectively
stumbled upon a search party

and wished them good luck

and claimed to have been out
searching all night,

which was,
when you reflect on that,

deeply, deeply troubling,

deeply shocking.

-Despite it being a small town,

detectives had discovered
multiple addresses

linked to Bridger,

whose transient lifestyle

had made finding him
extremely difficult.

-We had some previous addresses
that we knew he'd lived at

or where he may
still be living at,

and we were sending teams
of officers around

to those addresses
to try to locate April.

And on the some occasions
there was no answer,

we were forcing entry
into these properties.

We're quickly searching
in a hope to find her.

So it was a very fast-paced,
fast-moving investigation

to try to locate him.

-As the search for April
entered its 19th hour,

her older sister, Jazmin,
began to fear the worst.

-I knew we were never going
to get her back alive.

Something in me just said,

"She's not gonna
come home alive."

-By 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday,
October the 2nd, 2012,

5-year-old April Jones had been
missing for almost 20 hours.

The number-one suspect
in her abduction

was 46-year-old Mark Bridger.

April had been seen getting into
his car the previous evening.

The police had finally
traced Bridger

to a cottage called
Mount Pleasant

on the outskirts of Machynlleth.

They forced their way
through the door.

-So when the first officers
arrive at Bridger's home,

his fire is lit.

It is very hot in there.

There is a strong smell
of detergent,

bleach, cleaning fluid,

and the initial
forensic examination

then starts at that point,

but it's clearly looking
more and more suspicious

that something has happened
at that address.

-Just half an hour later,
at 3:30 p.m.,

Mark Bridger was spotted
by a patrol car

on the A487 Road heading back
into Machynlleth on foot.

-So when he is seen
walking down the road,

officers pull up alongside him
and speak to him,

confirm that it is Mark Bridger,

and he immediately makes
a disclosure to the officers

that April is dead

and that he has run over her
by accident.

-I think Mark Bridger's
selfishness really did come out

when he was picked up
by the police,

and he said to them,
"I need to talk,"

and the police said,
"Okay, but can you wait

until we get to the station,"
and he didn't.

He just proceeded
to basically engage

in this lengthy monologue

about what had gone on,
about how he felt,

and, basically,
when he was saying,

"I need to talk,"
he wasn't just saying that.

He was saying,
"You need to listen to me."

It was another way of him

trying to exert control
over other people.

It's something he's always doing
all of the time.

-In the police car
on the way to the station,

Bridger continued
to tell officers

his side of the story.

-He gave a very strange,

fantastical description

of what had really happened
to April.

"I ran over her
with my Land Rover,

and she was underneath
the wheels,

and I didn't know what to do,

and there was no pulse
and no sign,

and she wasn't moving."

Well, any normal person surely
would have rung the police

or the hospital or 999

at that instant,
wouldn't they?

"Well, you see, I didn't know,
and I didn't mean to,

I mean, I was going to just
lean her up against something."

Well, she wasn't leaned up
against something.

She disappeared.

-He created the stories
in his head.

Maybe he even believed
it himself, you know?

Some people will do...
Some people --

They are so desperate to be
accepted by others and in life

that they will
create the stories,

and they are so into it
and so desperate

that they will believe
those stories themselves,

and that's where you get
the compulsive liars.

So he might even believe
himself, that he...

Because he was actually telling
those stories to the police.

-He seems to think that
what's happened is quite blurry,

but what he does remember is

that he drove off
with her body somewhere,

but after that, he says,
"It's all blank.

I can't remember what happened."

-Bridger's bizarre
account of events

led detectives to believe
he might be lying,

and that April may still
be alive somewhere.

-So although when Mark Bridger
is first detained,

he says that he's killed her,
he's run over her,

we, obviously,
haven't found a body.

So there's still some hope

that you may be able
to find her alive.

So the thrust of searching
as many places as possible

and continuing to search
the countryside didn't stop.

-The following day,

the 3rd of October, 2012,

April's mother, Coral Jones,

appeared in front
of the world's press.

Her daughter had been missing
for over 36 hours.

-And so the atmosphere
in the room awaiting that

was quite extraordinary,

and when the door opened,
there was the briefest sense,

I remember even now,
of complete silence,

complete shock,

complete...

captivation, almost,

and as Coral walked
into the room,

then, obviously,
the noise began.

The shutters of the cameras
began to click.

To see up close,
merely a few feet away,

somebody going through
what Coral and her family

were going through
was astonishingly painful.

-[ Sobbing ] It's been 36 hours

since April was taken from us.

There must be someone out there

who knows where she is

and can help the police
find her.

We are desperate for any news.

April is only 5 years old.

Please...

Please, help find her.

-When you see firsthand
the impact it has on the family,

you can only imagine
what Coral

and the rest of the family
have gone through,

but it's when you see them
face-to-face,

and you're sitting next to them

in some of those
press conferences,

it is heartbreaking,
and, you know,

it just makes you more resolved
to try to do all you can.

-But as police forensic teams
began an intricate search

at Bridger's home,
it soon became clear

that April Jones would
never be found alive.

♪♪

-We do know from the detailed

forensic examination
of his home,

is that she probably died there.

We found her blood
at that address,

significant amounts
of her blood.

Clearly, he attempted
to clean the place,

which is part of the reason
the initial officers

found that overwhelming
smell of bleach.

He tried to clean up
several parts of the house.

There was blood in the lounge
and in the bathrooms,

and the wood burner was lit,
we believe,

because he was
looking to dispose

of incriminating evidence.

-From a policing
and prosecution perspective,

the key piece of evidence
in a murder inquiry

is almost certainly going
to be having a body,

and they didn't have that
in this instance,

so they were very,
very reliant

on not just on the human
witnesses that they had,

which were, in many cases,

friends of April's who had seen
the abduction take place,

but incredibly up-to-date
forensic technology,

which enabled them
to pinpoint fragments of bone

found in the wood burner
at Mark Bridger's house.

-Although there was bone,
it was burnt to such a degree

that we weren't able
to match it forensically

through any DNA profile,

albeit we know it is human
from the pathologist

and the scientists
that examined it subsequently.

-Forensic teams also found
a burnt boning knife

in Bridger's home.

The disturbing discovery
at Mount Pleasant cottage

shocked the entire community.

-There almost certainly was
no longer any chance

of a happy ending to this story,

a positive outcome of April
coming home to her family,

and that was very,
very powerful,

and when you saw the tiredness

that people understandably felt,

2, 3 days of hard working,

searching, not going to sleep,

to have everything that
they'd worked for

crushed in that way was

deeply, deeply dispiriting
for everybody,

and it was clear quite quickly
that there needed to be then

that further little bit
of perspective

and of rowing back a little bit
from the media

and from everybody
that was there

just to give people,
not just the family,

but the people in the town
that have been so affected,

that little bit of space

and that little bit of freedom

to grieve and to process
everything that happened.

♪♪

-For a while, they were
searching for April,

and they were hoping
she'd come back alive.

And I think it was a couple days
later, or something or other,

that it turned into
a search for the body.

And I kind of knew
that it must have been

some horrific crime
for them to search a body,

and in the sort of town we live

in where there's rivers
flowing through,

there's forestry everywhere,

I kind of knew there must have
been something quite bad,

otherwise you kind of would
have found a child's body

around this sort of area
straight away.

-After three days
of questioning,

on October the 5th, 2012,

Mark Bridger was arrested
on suspicion of murder,

but the 46-year-old continued
to protest his innocence.

-In interview, he's very
matter-of-fact in his answers,

and he says that he's
run over her accidentally,

and that he gets out
of his vehicle

and sees that he's run over her,
and he picks her up,

and he thinks, believes,
she's dead.

He does try resuscitating her.

But at each stage,

when you're then able to rebut
some of his story by saying,

"Well, there's no
forensic evidence

to show that she's come
to any harm in your vehicle,

albeit we could put her

inside the vehicle
with fingerprints,"

he would always suggest,
"Well, she wasn't bleeding."

So when you'd ask him, "Well,

how do you know that
she's dead, then,"

you know, he would say,
"Well, I knew she was dead."

His story didn't make sense.

-The reason why people hold back
information about murder

can vary from one case
to the next,

but, for me,

the central element
is often control.

When somebody has been
convicted of murder,

when somebody has been sentenced

to a very lengthy term
in prison,

they don't have control
over many things, at all.

The one thing that they do
have control over is

the knowledge of what happened,

of what they did
to their victim,

of where their victim is,
and often that's something

that people won't want
to part with very easily.

-Nothing that he said
we could back up

with any evidence
or forensic recoveries.

In fact, everything led
quite the contrary.

He had abducted April

from outside,
near to her home,

and then driven her back
to his house immediately,

and she probably met her end
very soon after that.

-He could have been curbing it
for a long time,

but on that day,
it overpowered him,

and once she was in the car,
then that was it.

Then he goes into
a different state of mind.

Then he can't stop it anymore.

It would be very hard
for him to stop.

-The following day,
October the 6th,

Mark Bridger was charged

with the abduction and murder

of 5-year-old April Jones.

-It's an absolute shock
with that,

and you don't know
what to think,

and then you start,
in your mind, questioning,

do you really know someone,
you know?

You could have known
this person, like, 15, 20 years,

but then it comes to the fact
of, do you really know them?

-And so the shock
to the community,

and, of course,
to April's parents,

to realize that not only
were they living with,

but they knew,

the man who had abducted
their daughter

is even more terrifying.

-The search for April's body
continued for seven months,

until the police called it off
in April 2013.

-The fact that
no body was found

didn't alter the course
of the investigation.

You know, we're still
treating it as a murder.

There's a huge impact
on the family, obviously,

but the search continued
for months and months afterwards

because we had to be sure,
in that area,

that we had searched everywhere
we possibly could

in an effort to find her.

So although we're confident

that she probably died
in his house,

what he's done with the body
after that, only he knows.

-On April the 29th, 2013,

the trial of Mark Bridger
began at Mold Crown Court.

The 47-year-old was charged

with the abduction and murder

of 5-year-old schoolgirl
April Jones.

Seven months
after her disappearance,

her body had still
not been found.

There was real hope
that the truth

of what happened to her

would emerge during proceedings.

♪♪

-I think from
the very first moment

that Mark Bridger appeared
in court,

he was a pathetic figure,

somebody that appeared to be
feeling sorry for himself,

that almost couldn't realize

the gravity of the situation

in which he found himself,

as though he somehow
was the victim

when absolutely he wasn't.

He was the offender.

He was the person that had done
this barbaric, inhuman thing.

-He just kind of hung
his head in shame.

He never once looked over,
ever, like, not even

a slight glance of his eyes,

didn't move his head,

just kind of hung his head
in shame.

-Bridger pleaded not guilty.

He was sticking
to the same story

he told police
back in October 2012,

claiming that April's death
was an accident.

-Mark Bridger used this
cloak of amnesia, almost,

to say that he couldn't account
for what had happened.

He accepted that he was
behind April's death,

but not that he intended
in some way to kill her,

and he concocted
this fanciful story

about potentially having
knocked her over with his car,

something that was never
born out in any of the evidence,

somehow claiming that
he then couldn't recall

what he'd done with her body,
that he was drinking lots,

and that the whole thing
could have been a nightmare.

This was someone
that was prepared to go

as low as they possibly could,

desperately trying
to save their own skin

in view of all evidence
to the contrary.

-So at the beginning,
I was kind of shocked, like,

"Oh, he hit her off the bike,"
but she knows well, too well,

not to go near the road
when there's a car.

She knows this really well,

and she knows to look
left and right and everything,

and we've always, always
taught her from a young age,

and then he starts
saying he panicked

and he just drove off with her,
and you kind of...

He's got kids around her age,
around April's age,

so you kind of think,
"You wouldn't panic.

You kind of, in a sense,

as a parent,
you'd know what to do."

So towards the end of it,
you're just like,

"Oh, shut up.

Just shut up, really.

You just make yourself
look a fool."

-During the trial,
police helicopter footage

emerged from the morning
after April's abduction.

It showed
a calm-looking Bridger.

-He seemed kind of casually out,

walking his dog
as if nothing had happened,

and I think what we've got here

is somebody who is struggling

to figure out what is the
appropriate way to behave here.

What are people going
to be looking out for?

What are they going to
be expecting to see?

-Most normal people would
look up at the helicopter

and wonder what was going on.

He knew exactly
what was going on.

He knew exactly what
he'd done with April,

and at that stage, you know,

the net was closing in on him,

and he was trying to blend in.

-On the 15th of May,

the jury was shown evidence

from Mark Bridger's laptop.

It was a key moment
in the trial.

-Bridger had begun to assemble

a collection of particularly
nasty child pornography

as well as photographs
of local children,

including April
and her elder sister.

At his trial, the prosecution
made a considerable play

of the fact that these images
were on his computer

and suggested that he may not
have been seeking specifically

to groom April.

It could have been
another member of the family

or another of the girls
that were on his computer,

but that he was certainly
seeking to groom someone,

some young girl.

-There are two types of people
or offenders

that would look at different
kinds of things on the Internet,

pornography, for example.

The first type is the people
who will be satisfied

by the photographs,
by the films,

by reading stories maybe,
but at the end of it, that's it.

It's, like, that's good enough.

They can turn off the computer,
and they forget about it.

But there are certain
other types --

and Bridger falls
into this category --

that, at the end,
that is not enough.

-He'd also been looking
at website reports

of previous child abductions,

and you're starting
to build a picture now

of a pedophile,
a dangerous, evil man,

who, for whatever reason,

has gone from minor offending

and tipped over into, you know,

the most serious crime.

-On May the 30th, 2013,

the jury took just four hours

to unanimously find Mark Bridger

guilty of murdering April Jones.

Judge Mr. Justice
Griffith Williams

sentenced him
to life imprisonment

with a whole-life order.

He was immediately sent
to Wakefield Prison.

He will never be free again.

-For them to turn around
and say,

"Life, and never to be released
from prison," is, like, wow.

It's just...

You can't explain
the feeling of it

because it's good

that he's never going to be
released from prison,

and he's never going to be able
to hurt anyone again.

-Well, when Bridger
was sentenced,

the judge referred to him
as a pathological liar

and a pedophile,

and I think both of those
descriptions are accurate.

Mark Bridger was somebody who
is very comfortable in a lie.

He would lie as easily
as he would breathe,

and if you look at
some of his behavior

in the final months
before April's death,

he was collecting
images of children

on his laptop.

He was engaging in behavior
that was incredibly bizarre.

So he was a pathological liar.
He was a pedophile.

He was a very dangerous man.

-The murder of April Jones

ruined the lives
of not just her family,

but an entire community.

-The Jones family were very
clearly a respectable family,

people that were well-known
in their community,

and there was
that shock element.

This could be anyone's child.

It wasn't somebody
that was put in harm's way.

It was a girl that was playing
on her bike outside her home

with her parents' blessing,
like she would every day.

They would call her in
for her dinner.

She would sit at home
and tell them

about her day at school
and how well she was doing.

Everyone can identify with that,

whether they have children
or not.

It's a brutal thing that
rips out a family's heart,

and that really,
really touches people.

-There was people
that we hadn't spoken to

who had little kids
around sort of the same age,

and they were really affected.

On the estate we live, kids were
outside all the time playing,

and then you didn't see a kid

for, like, two years
outside playing.

-In a final cruel act,

Mark Bridger has never
revealed the location

of April's body.

-I think that the key question
for many people in this case is,

will Mark Bridger ever
give up the information

about what happened
to April Jones,

about where she is,
to enable her parents

to basically say goodbye
to her properly,

and, unfortunately,
I don't think he will.

I think Mark Bridger is somebody

who will always
have self-preservation

as his number one priority,

and he's just simply not going
to put himself in a position

where he's got no power left.

-It's difficult
not getting a body back

because when you have
a body back,

you can lay them to rest.

You can say your goodbyes,

but when you've got
bone fragments and ash,

it's not the same at all,

because you can not say
your final goodbyes,

and Mark Bridger is
such a pathological liar,

and he believes his own lies,

he believes
he's telling the truth

that he's never gonna tell you.

He's never going to say
what really happened that day,

that evening,

and what he's done
with the body,

and you kind of have to come
to terms with that,

and you kind of
have to accept that

you're never going to be able
to fully say goodbye,

and you're never going to be
able to fully lay April to rest.

-On November the 17th, 2014,

Jazmin Jones stood
alongside her parents

and watched as the probable site
of April's murder,

Mount Pleasant cottage,

was bulldozed to the ground.

-You've changed.
You've completely changed.

You're never going to be
who you were.

I mean, when I have kids,
I could be completely different

to them to what I was thought
I was going to be

because of this event.

You've just completely changed.

You're never going to be
who you were,

and the demons you've had
to fight along the way,

they've changed you,
be it for the better

be it for the worse,
but the positive thing

is we've come out stronger.
We've come out.

We stuck together
through it all.

-Because the community
have gathered around

and been so positive

in the face
of such a grotesque crime,

it's not been something that's
been allowed to define them.

April Jones is not remembered
for how she died,

but for being
a beautiful young girl

who was happiest
in her community

and in her family.

So what happened to her

will always be a part
of the history of Machynlleth.

That will never be laid to rest
or put to one side,

but the fact that people do not
want to be defined by this,

do not want to be remembered
purely as the place

where this act of evil happened,

will mean that they can go on

and they can grow
and they can develop.

-Mark Bridger is
a perverted killer

who selfishly
snatched and killed

an innocent 5-year-old

for his own gratification.

He has constantly lied

and still refuses to admit

where April is buried.

Bridger has shown no remorse
for his actions

or explained the reasons
for the murder.

We should forget his name

and instead remember
the smiling face

of April Jones,

the girl whose life
he cruelly took away

at such a young age.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪