Losing April Week In Week Out


Losing April

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served. Mark Bridger will never be free again. We are relieved that

:00:16.:00:19.

Mark Bridger has today been found guilty of the murder of our

:00:19.:00:24.

beautiful daughter April. It's a crime which has traumatised a

:00:24.:00:27.

family, shocked the world and cast a shadow across the community. Mark

:00:27.:00:32.

Bridger was a man with a troubled past. He pushed his way in. He

:00:32.:00:37.

started beating me about the head. There are still more questions than

:00:37.:00:45.

answers. What was the trigger that's going to move a pretty typical

:00:45.:00:48.

offender into somebody that's capable of abducting a child and

:00:49.:00:54.

killing her? Tonight, as Bridger begins his life

:00:54.:00:58.

behind bars, we examine the man behind the crime that unfolded in

:00:58.:01:08.
:01:08.:01:23.

one of the safest parts of rural If you were asked to find a town

:01:23.:01:29.

that was ideal to raise a family in a quiet country location, where the

:01:29.:01:33.

word "community" is still relevant, then Machynlleth would probably fit

:01:33.:01:42.

the bill. It's a town that seems to be tucked away from the troubles of

:01:42.:01:45.

the world, where it's still safe for children to play outside after

:01:45.:01:55.
:01:55.:02:01.

children. On October 1 last year, she was out playing near her home on

:02:01.:02:07.

the Bryn-Y-Gog estate. There had been a parents' evening at her

:02:07.:02:12.

school. April received a glowing report. As a treat, she was allowed

:02:12.:02:17.

to stay out a little later than normal.

:02:17.:02:25.

This is the estate where April lived. The houses here overlook

:02:25.:02:28.

these communal greens and they look and feel like a safe place for

:02:28.:02:33.

children to play. April wasn't alone the night she disappeared. Other

:02:33.:02:39.

children were playing here too. But at 7. 7.30pm, the unthinkable

:02:39.:02:44.

happened, she was seen getting into an unidentified car. The alarm was

:02:44.:02:54.
:02:54.:03:02.

Somebody's picked her up in the car. What's the name of the child?

:03:02.:03:07.

Jones. These are the last pictures of April seen alive. She'd been

:03:07.:03:14.

swimming with her friend at the town's Leisure Centre. A couple of

:03:14.:03:18.

hours later, police and the local community were out searching for

:03:18.:03:27.

her. I remember very well that I was sitting at home and I had Facebook

:03:27.:03:34.

open. I could see this string was happening. I just thought, it was

:03:34.:03:43.

like as if something hit you really hard. This was wrong. I said to my

:03:43.:03:50.

husband, " Let's take the dog and have a look. It can't hurt." I was

:03:50.:03:57.

sitting in my office at home, thinking how can I change our

:03:57.:04:02.

harvest Thanksgiving services. Then the phone went. " Mum, you'd better

:04:02.:04:07.

come over. There's something on Facebook. There's a little girl gone

:04:07.:04:12.

missing." As they searched, CCTV footage from

:04:12.:04:16.

a garage showed Mark Bridger's Land Rover already heading out of

:04:16.:04:26.
:04:26.:04:31.

a statement saying they were increasingly concerned about April's

:04:31.:04:36.

safety and whereabouts. The town's Leisure Centre became the search

:04:36.:04:41.

headquarters. But the news was already spreading to the outside

:04:41.:04:50.

world through social media. Throughout the night, police and

:04:50.:05:00.
:05:00.:05:01.

helicopter scanned the surrounding area. It caught sight of Mark

:05:02.:05:06.

Bridger walking his dog. At that point, he wasn't a suspect, but the

:05:06.:05:16.
:05:16.:05:23.

police were soon released details Land Rover. Also, that April got

:05:23.:05:32.

into the driver's side. breakthrough came on the afternoon

:05:32.:05:35.

of October 2, when the police announced that they'd arrested a

:05:35.:05:42.

man, who they'd found walking on the road close to the Dyfi Bridge here a

:05:42.:05:47.

mile from the centre of Machynlleth. They said that they'd found his car

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which matched the description of the vehicle that was alleged to have

:05:50.:05:57.

been used in April's abduction. Mark Bridger was the man under arrest. He

:05:57.:06:02.

wasn't a stranger, but a local man and well known too. His arrest

:06:02.:06:07.

stunned the town. We were all still waiting down the Leisure Centre to

:06:07.:06:13.

be told whether we could go out searching again. A whisper started

:06:13.:06:18.

circulating, the rumour about who was arrested. Clair Owen was one of

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the search volunteers. She knew Mark Bridger. Mach is a close town.

:06:25.:06:28.

Everybody knows everybody. It would have been more unusual if somebody

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said they didn't know him. To have been told that he was arrested and

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as that went on, that surprise must have... Mind blowing.Turned to

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incredulity. Everybody was so upset. Unknown to the town, Mark Bridger

:06:44.:06:49.

was already telling police that April was dead. He'd killed her in a

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road accident. But the detective in charge had doubts. The story simply

:06:54.:07:00.

didn't add up. During the course of the interview, I think, Mark Bridger

:07:00.:07:06.

was someone who displayed various emotions. When he was talking about

:07:06.:07:12.

matters that he was comfortable with, he was very confident. He was

:07:12.:07:14.

very articulate. When he was challenged and asked about matters

:07:14.:07:23.

that he didn't want to be -- to discuss. He didn't want to talk

:07:23.:07:28.

about those areas, back into the areas he was comfortable with.

:07:28.:07:32.

during the process he was trying to hold onto some sort of control?

:07:32.:07:42.

was evident. Mark Bridger lived in Machynlleth for more than 20 years.

:07:42.:07:46.

He told people that before he came here, he had been a soldier in the

:07:47.:07:52.

Army. But tales of military action were just part of a trait of Mark

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Bridger's that made him stand out. He liked to tell tall stories about

:07:56.:08:02.

his past, very tall stories. liked to elaborate on the truth a

:08:02.:08:08.

little bit. Quite a lot. But everybody knew that. Maybe saying

:08:08.:08:14.

that he'd been in the Army or the SAS and things like this. You just

:08:15.:08:19.

didn't think anything of it. that a story that kept coming up,

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that he kept telling people that he'd been in the Army? We all

:08:22.:08:27.

believed he'd been in the Army. In fact there's no record that he'd

:08:27.:08:31.

ever been in the Army. But it's a story Mark Bridger would go to great

:08:31.:08:36.

lengths to protect. We've seen documents that show that Bridger was

:08:36.:08:40.

even prepared to lie to a court of law that he'd once been a soldier.

:08:40.:08:45.

In a dispute with a former landlord of his flat he made a statement in

:08:45.:08:50.

which he referred to his Army career to illustrate his strength and

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general fitness, which he said was being undermined by the fumes from a

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faulty boiler. Bridger consistently lied about his past, so often that a

:09:02.:09:07.

former friend believed he was a fantasist. Professor David Wilson is

:09:07.:09:12.

one of Britain's leading crim nol joists. It's his job to get into the

:09:12.:09:20.

minds of killers. In terms of what might have propelled Bridger from a

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fantasist into a murderer is the sense that some of these fantasies

:09:24.:09:28.

for Bridger weren't fantasies. They were part and parcel of his

:09:28.:09:32.

psychological make up. He thinks Mark Bridger's Army story helped

:09:32.:09:39.

tick a lot of boxes. The Army is almost a quintessential what

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sociologist would call hegemonic masculine construct. It's the ideal

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male type, the person capable of looking after himself, capable of

:09:49.:09:55.

defending himself, plus it allowed him to explain, I imagine, gaps in

:09:55.:10:01.

his own autobiography. It also made him quite a hero. That's - that

:10:01.:10:09.

comes across in terms of the types of jobs he chose. One of those much

:10:09.:10:13.

reported jobs was as a lifeguard, here at the brie Dyfi ledgeure

:10:13.:10:18.

centre. In 1990 Bridger was one of a group of trainees hoping to become a

:10:18.:10:22.

permanent member of staff. The manager at the time remembers him

:10:22.:10:27.

making a bright start. He said he'd come to the area from somewhere near

:10:27.:10:37.
:10:37.:10:38.

London, I rae call, following an unfortunate incident in the fire

:10:38.:10:40.

brigade where he used to work. He told me that he'd been up a ladder

:10:40.:10:44.

rescuing someone from a burning building and something had gone

:10:45.:10:49.

wrong and he'd fallen off the ladder with the person he was rescuing and

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they'd died. At that point, he was so upset he left the fire brigade

:10:51.:10:57.

and moved to this area. But Bridger couldn't hold down the job. He'd

:10:57.:11:04.

gone from very capable and efficient to, I suppose, unreliable and also,

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I upon deared about the fire brigade incident, because although I had no

:11:10.:11:16.

reason to disbelieve it, it just seems improbable given his age.

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After just five months, Mark Bridger had left. He stayed in the area,

:11:20.:11:26.

drifting from one job to another. He'd most recently worked as a

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labourer after finishing as a slaughterman for three years. Before

:11:29.:11:36.

that, he worked for a plant hire company in Aberystwyth. Derek Waller

:11:36.:11:40.

worked with him and saw through his lies. We learned after a little

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while he had a tell. He would rub his head like this when he was kind

:11:45.:11:49.

of, almost as if he was thinking to embellish something or other. A

:11:49.:11:53.

little immature for his years. But nothing, nothing at all that would

:11:53.:12:01.

make you feel I need to steer clear of this person. That bit sticks in

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my mind about being on a second storey of a building. There was an

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explosion and he was blown backwards out of the window and landed on the

:12:07.:12:13.

floor on his breathing apparatus behind him. That hurt his back and

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he couldn't carry on with his job in the fire brigade. Mark Bridger's

:12:17.:12:22.

story of being a heroic firefighter was another fantasy. In 1984 he

:12:22.:12:26.

joined the London Fire Brigade, but never completed his training and

:12:26.:12:36.
:12:36.:12:43.

disappearance, police had their man, but there was no sign of April. The

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truth was they were already too late to find her alive. What sort of man

:12:49.:12:52.

could commit such a crime? Was there anything in his upbringing that

:12:52.:13:00.

could explain how he could be capable of murdering a child? Mark

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Bridger was born in Sutton south London was railed in suburban

:13:04.:13:09.

Croydon. His father was a police officer and he attended mainstream

:13:09.:13:16.

schools. All in all, a respectable upbringing. This is the road where

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Mark Bridger grew up in the quiet, middle-class suburb of Croydon in

:13:21.:13:28.

south London. Neighbours remember a respectable, normal family. Mark

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Bridger was described as a boy who tended to keep himself to himself

:13:32.:13:38.

and he didn't play with other children on the street. By the time

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he was 19 Mark Bridger had a conviction for attempting an armed

:13:42.:13:45.

robbery of a grocer's shop in London. He now claims he had never

:13:45.:13:49.

intended any such robbery and his fake gun, just happened to be in the

:13:50.:13:54.

car. But we've found reports at the time that paint a more damning

:13:54.:14:00.

picture. The shop is long gone, but this is the street a couple of miles

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from Mark Bridger's home, where he'd gone to carry out his armed robbery.

:14:05.:14:10.

He was equipped with what was later described as a robber's kit,

:14:10.:14:14.

including a balaclava and a fake handgun. But before he could act, he

:14:14.:14:22.

was caught in a stolen car. He later confessed everything and in court,

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the judge decided to give him a second chance. It was probation

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rather than Princess Dianasen for Mark Bridger. -- rather than prison

:14:34.:14:39.

for Mark Bridger. Perhaps looking for a fresh start he moved to

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Machynlleth in 1990 and married a local girl. The marriage didn't last

:14:43.:14:46.

but he didn't seem to be single for long. He had a number of

:14:46.:14:52.

revelationships over the next 20 years. He wasn't sleazy or trying it

:14:52.:14:57.

on with anybody, he just always seemed to a female friend,

:14:57.:15:04.

companion. Yeah, just always seemed to be with someone. But detectives

:15:04.:15:08.

were uncovering a hidden side to Mark Bridger. His computer contained

:15:08.:15:13.

indecent images of children and revealed a fascination with child

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abduction and murder stories. think it is evident that in the time

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leading up to the incident, he is somebody who is losing control. His

:15:22.:15:25.

relationship has broken down. He appears to be struggling financially

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and I think that on the night in question, he clearly is someone who

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has got an unhealthy interest in children and I think the opportunity

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arose. It is unfortunate that April Jones was in the wrong place at the

:15:39.:15:43.

wrong time. The day Bridger took April, he'd

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been dumped by his latest girlfriend. Also that day, he'd

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approached two other girls, aged eight and ten, inviting them to a

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sleepover with hills daughter. -- his daughter. Day three, as the

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search continued April's distraught mother begged for help. April is

:16:07.:16:17.
:16:17.:16:23.

only five years old. Please, please help find her. Pink ribbons appeared

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across Machynlleth as a symbol of solidarity and hope. An ordinary

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community showing its support for a family going through torment.

:16:34.:16:36.

Reverend Kathleen Rogers had only that year taken on the

:16:36.:16:44.

responsibility for the parish. a good community. It's a typical

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Welsh, small, country community. peaceful place? Yes. Yes.A happy

:16:53.:17:01.

place? Yes.Up to that night. Up to that night. Then?There was this

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big, black, heavy cloud over this town and over the community as well,

:17:06.:17:13.

over the villages around Machynlleth as well and this cloud, the longer

:17:13.:17:17.

it went on, this cloud was, felt as if it was pushing us into the

:17:17.:17:24.

ground. It was awful, that first week was awful. She found her

:17:24.:17:30.

self-trying to support a community -- her self-trying to support a

:17:31.:17:33.

community as the eyes of the world looked on. I had an e-mail of

:17:34.:17:36.

somebody who was in, I think Australia, and she said that I live

:17:36.:17:41.

in a Smallvilleage and we've put pink rib orns around the village and

:17:41.:17:51.
:17:51.:17:57.

was was saying nothing. The search would continue for another seven

:17:57.:18:07.
:18:07.:18:15.

village of Ceinws that the search moved on Thursday, October 4. Mark

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Bridger was known to have been living here most recently. Police

:18:18.:18:22.

searched the house from top to boss op and the evidence that they found

:18:22.:18:28.

here was sufficient to charge him with April's murder. Police found a

:18:28.:18:32.

trail of April's blood at the cottage, a burnt knife and fragments

:18:32.:18:38.

of skull in the log-burning stove. There were signs he had tried to

:18:38.:18:42.

clean up and burn any evidence that April had been in the house. The

:18:42.:18:47.

conclusion drawn by detectives was that Bridger had killed her. But

:18:47.:18:52.

still, he wouldn't say what he'd done with her body. It raises

:18:52.:18:58.

left left without closure. That puts him

:18:58.:19:06.

in the same category at Ian Brady doesn't it? It does, it does. What's

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interesting, though, about Bridger and his public statements, unlike

:19:09.:19:14.

Brady, is Brady is a paranoid schizophrenic and is clearly a

:19:14.:19:19.

psychopath and is mentally ill. Mark Bridger doesn't strike me in that

:19:19.:19:26.

way. Therefore, I think it would be not unexpected for Bridger, at some

:19:27.:19:33.

stage in the future, to be table to talk about actually what caused this

:19:33.:19:40.

particular crime and where April's body might be, hidden, buried or

:19:40.:19:46.

left. A week after April disappeared, Mark Bridger was

:19:47.:19:52.

formally charged with her murder. Until that point, everybody was

:19:52.:20:02.
:20:02.:20:06.

looking for April. Not for April's body. It changed everything. That

:20:06.:20:13.

one event in the whole process changed everyone's way of thinking.

:20:13.:20:20.

The community struggled to come to terms with the news. Mark Bridger

:20:20.:20:23.

appeared to live quietly in his community but there were flashes of

:20:23.:20:29.

the darker side of his personality too. A violent and calculating side.

:20:29.:20:36.

One person who crossed his path was his former landlord. The two of them

:20:36.:20:43.

happened to be drinking in this pub that night. There was a history of

:20:43.:20:46.

bad blood between them, although nothing was said until Bridger's

:20:46.:20:53.

former landlord left and made a sarcastic aside. Bridger took huge

:20:53.:21:01.

offence and decided to wait to take his revenge later that night.

:21:01.:21:07.

At quarter to one... In the morning? In the morning, I heard this banging

:21:07.:21:10.

on the door, the back door. I got out. He was all dressed in his

:21:10.:21:20.

bovver boots and his jacket right up to his chin. He was shout shouting

:21:20.:21:23.

I'd belittled him in the pub. I couldn't believe it. He pushed his

:21:23.:21:32.

way in. He was mouthing off to me. He pushed me into my bike head

:21:32.:21:36.

first. He started beating me about the head. His former landlord, who

:21:36.:21:40.

didn't want his face on camera, is convinced that Bridger had carefully

:21:40.:21:48.

planned the attack. He's a crafty, connive conniving so-and-so. He knew

:21:48.:21:54.

with my arthritis I could hardly pick a cup up, you know, at that

:21:54.:22:04.
:22:04.:22:15.

time. He knew that I was not in a good state. So your impression,

:22:15.:22:19.

then, when he came to the house was that it was quite calculating, was

:22:19.:22:20.

it? Definitely. Bridger pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual

:22:20.:22:23.

bodily harm and was sentenced to four months in prison suspended for

:22:23.:22:28.

18 months. There was a great deal of planning in relation to what he did.

:22:28.:22:30.

That does imply that he had quite a fragile ego, that maintaining his

:22:30.:22:33.

sense of self, maintaining his sense of face in the community was very

:22:33.:22:42.

important to him. Hundreds took part in a procession the Sunday after

:22:42.:22:46.

April's disappearance, which culminated in a church service in

:22:46.:22:53.

the town. Loving father, we thank you for your guidance during these

:22:53.:22:58.

past difficult days... She was just a sweet little thing with a

:22:58.:23:04.

beautiful smile. Smiling?Yeah, every time I saw her she was always

:23:04.:23:09.

smiling. Yeah, a sweet little child. Who would want to hurt a little

:23:09.:23:16.

child? There is no answer, is there? We can't have the answer. In the

:23:16.:23:20.

middle of this, the family had to cope with the loss of April and the

:23:21.:23:30.

eyes of the world were on them. For them, there was to be no respite

:23:30.:23:35.

from Bridger. Then in January, in a cruel twist, he admitted to probably

:23:35.:23:43.

being responsible for April's death. He's someone who at an earlier

:23:43.:23:47.

hearing admitted he was probably responsible for her death and yet,

:23:47.:23:53.

his plead pleading -- he's pleading not guilty. That tells me a great

:23:53.:23:59.

deal of how murderers are treated especially the murderers of children

:23:59.:24:03.

in prison. It might be to do with the way he can explain his behaviour

:24:03.:24:07.

to other prisoners so as to make his life slightly better inside than it

:24:07.:24:12.

would be if he simply came straight out and said - I murdered a very

:24:12.:24:20.

young child. He would be regarded as the lowest of the low in jail.

:24:20.:24:28.

Mark Bridger's trial began, the full horror of what might have happened

:24:28.:24:30.

was revealed by the prosecution. Sexual images of children, a

:24:30.:24:34.

fascination with child abduction, April's blood in Bridger's house.

:24:34.:24:41.

For the community, this was worse than they'd feared. It's the shock

:24:41.:24:48.

waves of realise realising what could have gone on in April's last

:24:48.:24:54.

moments, it's just something you want to run scream ago way from

:24:54.:24:57.

really. -- screaming away from really. I can hardly believe that

:24:57.:25:04.

such a monster could be acting as normal. It just was all there in

:25:04.:25:11.

stark reality that, no, bless her, she wasn't going to come back and

:25:11.:25:21.
:25:21.:25:24.

it's hard. It's very hard. On the day April should have been

:25:24.:25:29.

celebrating her 6th birthday with her family, they took the brave

:25:29.:25:39.
:25:39.:25:39.

decision to invite the community to come together to celebrate and

:25:39.:25:49.
:25:49.:26:02.

Bridger, a man would told tall stories about his life. A man with a

:26:02.:26:06.

checkered love life, a series of failed jobs, a man with criminal

:26:06.:26:11.

convictions. Is this the profile of a man who would abduct and kill a

:26:11.:26:21.

child? What was the trigger that's going to move a pretty typical,

:26:21.:26:26.

anodyne offender into somebody who is capable of abducting a child and

:26:26.:26:30.

killing her? Usually when I deal with predatory paedophiles who have

:26:30.:26:34.

abducted children, I'm dealing with somebody whose record wouldn't be

:26:34.:26:38.

about seven offences, but would be about 70 offences dating back to

:26:38.:26:43.

their childhood, dating back to their teenage years. They will have

:26:43.:26:46.

had long periods of time in Young Offender Institutions and in

:26:46.:26:52.

prisons. I don't have that with Mark Bridger. You would have expected to

:26:53.:26:57.

have seen some previous offending that would have given an idea of the

:26:57.:27:02.

escalation. In this case, that hasn't bob the case. So o -- hasn't

:27:02.:27:06.

been the case. On that basis this case will now inform future research

:27:07.:27:10.

I guess. It is the first time I have ever come across an individual such

:27:10.:27:14.

as Mark Bridger and I hope that I don't have to come across anybody of

:27:14.:27:20.

don't have to come across anybody of don't have to come across anybody of

:27:20.:27:21.

the same make up again. Mark Bridger's lies have been

:27:21.:27:26.

exposed. The judge told him he's a paedophile who's harboured sexual

:27:26.:27:29.

and morbid fantasies about young girls. He's the man who broke the

:27:29.:27:35.

hearts of April's parents. In the moment that justice was done, they

:27:35.:27:39.

retained their composure and dignity just as they did later outside.

:27:39.:27:45.

We'd like to thank our family and friends and the community of

:27:45.:27:48.

Machynlleth. We would like to take this time to be with our family and

:27:48.:27:52.

try to come to terms with the loss of April. For her family, closure

:27:52.:27:57.

will only come when Bridger reveals one of his darkest secrets - where

:27:57.:28:07.
:28:07.:28:10.

events of last October have left their mark, but this is a community

:28:10.:28:16.

determined not to be diminished. is the daughter of Machynlleth. And

:28:16.:28:22.

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