A former abattoir worker and lifeguard has been convicted of the abduction and murder of five-year-old April Jones.
Mark Bridger seized April as she played on her bicycle near her home in Machynlleth, mid-
Wales, and murdered her before concealing, disposing of or destroying her body, which has never been found despite one of the most intensive police searches in British history.
The jury at Mold crown court found Bridger guilty of three charges – murder, abduction and unlawfully disposing of and concealing April's body – after four hours and six minutes of deliberation.
The 47-year-old swallowed deeply and appeared to hold back tears before he was taken down to the cells. He will be sentenced on Thursday afternoon.
April Jones, who went missing on 1 October last year in Machynlleth, mid Wales. Photograph: Dyfed-Powys police/PA
As the verdict was returned there was no audible reaction from the public gallery from where April's parents, Paul and Coral, were watching.
For the first time it can be revealed that Bridger, who is the son of a retired City of London police officer, told a priest while he was in prison awaiting trial that he had "flung" April's body into a river.
Detectives, however, have treated the apparent confession with caution and tend to think that after sexually assaulting April, he dismembered her body at his cottage, Mount Pleasant, in the village of Ceinws and disposed of the pieces in various remote places.
It can also be revealed that the fragments of bone found in Bridger's fireplace and in his bath plughole – confirmed to be April's remains – will be returned to her family so they can bury them if they wish. The family has made it clear to police that they would like to see Bridger's cottage demolished.
The discovery of explicit images of child sex abuse on Bridger's laptop is also bound to prompt a fresh debate on possible links between the viewing of such images and sex killings.
During the trial it emerged that Bridger had viewed a cartoon image of a bound girl being sexually abused by an adult just hours before April was abducted.
Bridger in police custody. Photograph: Dyfed-Powys police/PA
It can also be revealed that a tape found in Bridger's video player when police raided his home was paused at the point of a rape and murder scene from the slasher film The Last House on the Left. He had recorded the same scene – but nothing more of the film – twice on one videotape.
The discovery opens the possibility that Bridger viewed the film just before or even as he was abusing or murdering April.
Bridger, who has six children by four women, faces spending the rest of his life behind bars. Prison sources say there is already a "tag" on his head and he will spend the first part of his imprisonment on suicide watch and the rest being protected from other inmates.
The Land Rover belonging to Bridger. Photograph: Dyfed-Powys police/PA
April disappeared on the evening of 1 October from the Bryn-Y-Gog estate. Police believe she was taken into Mount Pleasant alive and may have been sexually assaulted there.
Detective Superintendent Andy John, the senior investigating officer, said: "I think the body has been dismembered and various parts have been placed in different areas. Possibly those remains would have been small and damaged. That's why we've had such difficulty locating them."
While held on remand at HMP Manchester, formerly known as Strangeways, Bridger told the prison chaplain, Father Barry O'Sullivan, during a counselling session that he threw April's body in the river. But while detectives accept that parts of April's body may have ended up there, they do not set much store by the apparent confession. They point out that during police interviews Bridger provided many misleading remarks suggesting where her body might be. Detectives believe he liked to play what in court was described as a "cruel game" by not revealing the location of April's remains.
John said he thought the abduction of a child was "premeditated", though he did not believe April was a specific target. He said images found on Bridger's laptop, including pictures of sadistic child sexual abuse, suggested the killer was building up to the
crime.
"For me the computer evidence points towards an individual who is evil, manipulative and has premeditated this," said John. "The unhealthy interest he has in indecent images of children for me is a clear indicator that this individual was going to commit something as horrific as he did."
Though he had convictions for violence and deception dating back to when he was a teenager, Bridger had no convictions for sexual offences against children or for having indecent images. Since his arrest no other allegations have been made against Bridger. Nor is there any evidence that he has abused any of his children.
There are striking parallels, however, between the case of Bridger and that of Stuart Hazell, who earlier this month admitted murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp in south London.
Both men had no previous convictions for abuse but carried out sexually motivated murders after viewing images of child sexual exploitation.
Jim Gamble, the founding head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said there was a theory that men such as Bridger and Hazell became caught up in a "spiral of abuse".
"They begin to want more, they want access not to still images but to video images, and then they want to get more real experience. And through the internet they realise that they are not alone," Gamble said.
While Bridger begins his sentence, April's family will have to try to begin the next chapter of their lives, which could at last involve a funeral.
The police and prosecution have been careful to preserve as much of the fragments of bone found at Bridger's house as they can so the remains could be returned to April's family. "From a moral issue we've had to ensure we've maintained something we could possibly allow the family to have," said John.
Detective Sergeant Hayley Heard, one of the two family liaison officers who have been at the side of Paul and Coral Jones since April vanished, said: "Their lives have changed forever. I don't know if they will ever be able to move on or get closure. But I think because they have got other children they have to carry on.
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