1:27 AM
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- April went missing on Monday evening after she was seen getting into a car near her home in the Welsh market town of Machynlleth
- Bridger was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the youngster's disappearance, but was re-arrested on suspicion of April's murder
- Her family thanked those who helped the inquiry for their 'overwhelming' support
- Despite a huge search from the community and police, the youngster has not been seen since Monday
- Hundreds are expected to attend a church service in April's honour in Machynlleth today
Mark Bridger will appear in court tomorrow accused of murdering five-year-old April Jones, who disappeared while playing near her home.
He will also face charges of child abduction and perverting the course of justice. The development followed a second fingertip search of the former welder’s cottage in a hamlet four miles from where April went missing.
Bridger, 46, who was questioned by detectives over four days and is a friend of April’s father, will appear before Aberystwyth Magistrates’ Court.
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This new picture of April Jones was released
yesterday as police turned to a steep hillside in their search for the
five-year-old
News of the charges was relayed to April’s family shortly before an official announcement from the officer leading the investigation.
Last night April’s parents – Paul, 43, and Coral Jones, 40 – were being comforted at an undisclosed address by family and Dyfed Powys police liaison officers.
They were also visited by the force’s chief constable, Jackie Roberts, who said afterwards: ‘Now that Mark Bridger has been charged with this horrific crime it is time to let the judicial process take its course and time to let the family come to terms with what has happened in the last week.
Accused: These photographs show Mark Bridger,
the man charged with the murder of missing April Jones, on holiday,
left, and playing with two dogs on a beach, right
Fun times: Mark Bridger and former girlfriend
Vicky Fenner enjoying a night out with friends at the pub, and a
Facebook picture showing Mark Bridger jokily sticking his head inside a
dinosaur's mouth
Mark Bridger, 46, has been charged with the murder of missing five-year-old April Jones
He added: ‘I realise that this is an incredibly difficult time for April’s family, friends and the community.’
Bridger was arrested on Tuesday after being stopped by officers as he walked near the River Dyfi, two miles north of Machynlleth.
On Friday night search teams in white boiler suits entered Bridger’s cottage in the hamlet of Ceinws, north of Machynlleth, for a second inspection.
The house, close to the River Dyfi, where the coastguard and RNLI crews have also been searching for April, had been sealed off by police on Thursday morning.
A white plastic tent was erected over the entrance to the two-storey building on Friday night and police also searched hedgerows opposite.
They had earlier lifted paving slabs and examined rubbish bags and recycling crates at the rear of the property.
Announcement: (Left to right) District Crown
Prosecutor from the CPS Iwan Jenkins, Chief Constable Jackie Roberts and
Superintendent Ian John told reporters that the search would continue
for April
Police told reporters gathered at the press
conference in Aberystwyth that Mark Bridger had been charged with child
abduction, murder, and perverting the course of justice
At first light yesterday, more than 60 police officers, assisted by emergency workers, began searching rivers, woodland and fields.
April was abducted as she was playing with friends outside her home last Monday. She was seen getting into what was described as a van.
On Friday her mother continued to insist that she believed April was still alive.
April went missing on Monday evening and the entire community has been out looking for her
Search: Five-year-old April was seen willingly getting into a large vehicle at around 7pm on Monday
A police search team go through rubbish at the home of accused Mark Bridger
Search teams launch boats into the river as police continue to look for April's body
But Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies said Bridger being charged had changed the balance of hope in the community.
‘The fact the evil shadow descended in the midst of a place like this, one of the safest in the Britain, has made people realise it could happen anywhere and that’s why it has had such a huge impact,’ he said.
April's mother Coral is seen at a press
conference earlier this week, during which she made an emotional appeal
for the return of her five-year-old daughter
Bridger attended the same school parents'
evening as April's mother Coral Jones (pictured) and father hours before
their daughter disappeared
A former friend of the accused, who would not be identified, said: ‘Paul was a pretty close friend – Mark was often around there because his own kids live on the same estate.
‘Mark’s hobbies include clay pigeon shooting and motors – he’s very keen on banger racing and has competed in races. Most people around here know his face.’
A friend of the Jones family added: ‘Mark was often at their house. He and Paul used to mend motorbikes together in Paul’s garage.
‘I cannot stop thinking of April, playing outside on the trampoline, singing, laughing and running about with her friends on the square in the middle of the estate.’
Hunt: Forensic officers are seen erecting a tent outside Bridger's house in Ceinws
Charged: Forensic officers outside the home of
Mark Bridger, who has today been charged with murder following the
disappearance of five-year-old April Jones
Investigators search through bins outside Mark Bridger's home in the village of Ceinws
A pink cloth was tied to the gate outside St
Peter's Parish Church in Machynlleth during the week as the community
turned out in force to help search for missing April
Police attended a candlelit vigil held at the parish church on the fifth night of the search for missing April
MACHYNLLETH: THE TOWN WITH A BROKEN HEART
Vigil: A girl from April's school lights a candle with Rev Kathleen Rogers
On Friday evening, locals poured into St Peter’s Church in the centre of Machynlleth for a candlelit vigil for the five-year-old, believed by police to have been murdered but still not found.
Their prayers for April had not been answered, but they went to the church to find solace in the ritual and in one another’s company. On previous evenings they had been united in hope; now they were united in the terrible shock of the realisation of their fears.
As the Right Reverend Andrew John, the Bishop of Bangor, read the parable of the Good Samaritan and spoke of giving thanks for the love and compassion shown to the community during the last awful week, the congregation sat silently, some wiping their eyes.
Among them were parents holding the hands of their little sons and daughters, dressed in the uniform of April’s school, Machynlleth Primary. One row was filled with officers from the local police force.
Lighting candles seemed to bring some comfort to the many who joined the long line to the altar.
As the Bishop said, it helped to ‘give form to some of their unformed emotions and griefs.’
He told me: ‘There are people here of no faith, but they want to express hope in the darkness.
There’s a real strength to this community, but I’ve also been struck by how people have refused to allow this terrible incident to become a commentary on Machynlleth. There’s almost a defiance in the way they’re acting – Machynlleth isn’t like this; we’re better than this.’
That spirit was still in evidence throughout the small, close-knit community yesterday.
In Wheeler’s fabric and haberdashery shop, which provided the pink ribbons festooned around the town’s every gatepost, tree trunk and car aerial, workers refused to give up their production line of snipping and tying.
‘She hasn’t been found yet, so we’re not going to stop,’ said a woman behind the counter, fixing safety pins to newly made bows.
But there is no doubt that the predominant emotion is grief. Machynlleth is a market town with 2,200 residents who all seem to know one another. At its core is a traditional Welsh community of families who have been there for generations, but they have been joined over the past few decades by many from other parts of Britain.
They come because of the spectacular landscape, the laid-back atmosphere created by vegan cafes and craft shops and, above all, because of its reputation as a safe, peaceful place to bring up their families. That assumption has been brutally destroyed, leaving the community traumatised.
‘The heart of the town has been broken by this,’ said one neighbour of April’s family on the Bryn-y-Gog estate. ‘People thought we lived in the safest place on Earth and now, in an instant, that idea has been shattered.’
The mood of the town altered perceptibly after the announcement that police were now treating April’s disappearance as a murder inquiry. Yesterday, the ribbons and leaflets about the appeal set up for April’s family were still being handed out in shops, but the sense of purpose which had kept people strong had vanished. The town centre was quiet, the atmosphere sombre.
At April’s school, teachers had helped pupils create heart-shaped messages and decorate the building with pink ribbons in support of the missing five-year-old. Once the word ‘murder’ was used, parents had to find a way to tell their children she might not be coming back. One man whose daughter is a pupil said: ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do it. It’s so awful.’
The search continues, with emergency services including the coastguard, RNLI, RAF mountain rescue and 150 members of mountain rescue teams from across the UK combing woodland and rivers.
The possibility that April could never be found is a fear people are trying not to contemplate. Locals know better than anyone the harshness of the terrain surrounding the town, with its countless mineshafts and the fast-flowing River Dyfi.
‘She has to be brought home,’ said Tim Jenkins, who moved with his family from Manchester to Machynlleth to work at the Centre for Alternative Technology and lives a two-minute walk from April’s family. ‘If the rescue teams can’t find her, locals will never stop looking until they can bring her home. It’s that sort of community.’
The Bishop is all too aware of what lies ahead for its residents. ‘As the initial shock settles, there will be a mix of anger and despair,’ he said. ‘But I think there will also be a stronger pulling together.’
This remarkable community will need to draw on all its reserves of strength and solidarity in the weeks ahead.
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