by Paul
‘Hi, would you like to go out for a meal or a drink?’ read the final message.
I was almost shaking with rage, thinking of what disgusting thoughts would have been going through his mind.
Elwen briefly touched on some of the forensic evidence in her opening speech. For the first time, the details of the blood in the cottage and the bone fragments were made public. This was a huge weight off our shoulders. This was by far the most disturbing evidence we’d been told in confidence by the police and we’d been under a lot of strain, as we’d been forced to keep it to ourselves. Still, it didn’t make it any easier hearing about it all over again and I felt an irrational sense of guilt. Surely there was something I could have done to protect April from this animal?
Elwen then described how April had been ‘happy and smiling’ as she’d got into Bridger’s Land Rover but was never seen alive again. This was difficult, but not as difficult as hearing the 999 call Coral made just minutes later. As it was played to the court I felt the blood rush to my head, while cold goosebumps covered my body. Coral was ashen and continued to squeeze my hand. The court fell completely silent – I doubt any of the jury had ever heard anything so harrowing, and I’m sure some of them had tears in their eyes. Listening to Coral, panicked and breathless, barely able to speak, was horrendous, especially as we now knew how the events of that terrible night played out.
What really made us sick, however, was Bridger’s reaction. He dabbed at his eyes, playing to the crowd, pretending to be upset as he heard my wife’s choking sobs. I wanted to jump down from the public gallery and punch him. How dare he pretend to be moved by our distress?
‘Crocodile tears,’ Coral whispered hoarsely and I nodded. It was all I could do not to explode with rage. As I sat in my seat, bubbling with fury, I forced myself to think of April. I had to keep my dignity for her. We needed to do everything in our power to have this monster locked up and the key thrown away. Shouting and screaming and making a scene would only take the focus away from the case and from April.
None of us felt much like cooking that night, so we put some pizzas in the oven and had a quiet evening. My mind was still working overtime, so I stayed up while Coral and Melere had an early night. To pass the time, I jotted down my feelings about the day’s events in my diary.
‘It really worries me that Mark Bridger had pictures of April and Jazz,’ I wrote. ‘But what hurt the most was hearing the 999 call. It was so hard to listen to and made the hairs on my body stand up.
‘We’ve had lots of lovely messages from people. We’re just relieved everything is now coming out and we don’t have to be so quiet or guarded with our words.
‘April, I’m so sorry. No one deserves this but you’re so special and beautiful. We love you and miss you.
‘All our love, your family xxx.’
I was so exhausted, I managed to fall into a deep sleep as soon my head hit the pillow and I was relieved when Coral said she’d slept well, too. We got to court about 9.30 a.m. the next day, where my mum, Dai and Fil were waiting for us. They were allowed to stay with us in our little holding room and it was nice they’d come along to support us.
It proved to be another gruelling day. We were shown a slideshow of some of the indecent pictures found on Bridger’s computer and I could tell this was getting a bit too much for Coral. I’d spent my most of my adult life cursing my poor eyesight but, on that day, I was actually thankful for it. Even from our front row seats, I couldn’t make out any of the pictures properly, although I could see enough to appreciate how disgusting and depraved they were.
Elwen then went on to read out some of the statements made by Bridger to the police, one of which claimed he wanted to ‘say sorry’ to us because he’d run April over and killed her. Of course, we knew this was nonsense. If this had been a genuine accident, any decent person would have phoned for an ambulance straight away instead of leaving anything to chance. He then claimed to the police that he had got drunk and simply forgotten what he’d done with her body. It was preposterous that he thought this was believable.
‘He was coming up with a story to try and explain away April’s disappearance and his role in that,’ Elwen told the jury. ‘The prosecution case is that the defendant’s account is a lie.’
Bridger shook his head and began to cry, with his head in his hands, but Elwen was quick to dismiss him.
‘It appears lies and tears come easily to the defendant,’ she said, brusquely. She then began to read from the statement Bridger had given to police shortly after he was arrested.
‘It was an accident . . .’ Elwen read the words slowly and clearly, her eyes boring into Bridger with every syllable. ‘I crushed her with my car. I do not know where she is. As I was going to drive away, two girls on a bike came across me. I got out and saw one girl lying under my car. I did not abduct her. I did my best to revive her. I panicked. The more I drove through the night, the more I got pissed. My intention was to head to hospital. There was no life in her, no pulse, no breathing, no response. When my hand went over her chest, I knew there was more to it. I went numb. I did not know what I was doing.’
Coral was crying now. Even though we knew this wasn’t what had happened, it was still hard to listen to.
‘He didn’t think he would have burned her or buried her or put her in the river,’ Elwen told the jury, the disdain obvious in her voice. ‘Being a father himself, he said he would not have done any of these things.’
Elwen then described how Bridger had been spotted the day after April was taken in a field near his home, carrying a black bin bag. He claimed he’d been in the field because he ‘needed to go for a wee’, despite his house being only a short distance away.
‘We ask you, what was Mark Bridger doing at that location?’ Elwen asked the jury. ‘What was in that black binbag?’
I gripped Coral’s hand but neither of us took our eyes off Bridger in the dock below.
Elwen recounted how police had searched Bridger’s cottage half an hour before they’d arrested him. They’d hoped to find April, but instead they found evidence of a major clean-up operation.
‘When they went in they stated that the house was uncomfortably hot,’ she told the jury. ‘There was a strong smell of detergents, a smell of cleaning products, air freshener and washed clothes.’
Elwen then went on to describe how Bridger had approached other young girls from Machynlleth in the hours leading up to April’s disappearance, even inviting one to his house for a ‘sleepover’. She also told the jury that forensic tests revealed that some of April’s DNA had been found inside of the crotch area of his tracksuit bottoms. But before these tests had even been carried out, Bridger had attempted to cover himself. It was all so calculated; without prompting, he’d claimed he’d gone to the toilet after picking up April’s body when she was crushed by his car because he knew there was a chance her DNA would be found on his genitals.
‘This is a man who is forensically aware,’ Elwen said. ‘He knew how important it was from his point of view to try and get rid of any forensic evidence linking him to April.’
At that moment, Coral let go of my hand and ran out of the courtroom.
Coral recalls:
As the day went on, I found it harder and harder to listen to the evidence. The images found on Bridger’s computer made me feel physically sick, so much so I could feel the bile rising in my throat. For once, I envied Paul and his poor sight.
I thought I’d want to shout out and call Bridger all of the names under the sun, to scream at him and tell him how much I hated him but, in reality, I didn’t have the energy. All I could think about was April and what she must have suffered and it was slowly ripping me apart, bit by bit.
We’d been made aware of most of the content of Elwen’s opening speech but I could hardly hold it together when she was making it. I struggled through hearing about the forensic evidence, Bridger’s lies about how April had died and how he had callously cleaned his cottage from top
to bottom to get rid of the evidence of her death. I told myself I was doing it for my daughter, otherwise I would have left within the first five minutes.
But when Elwen told the jury about April’s DNA being found on the crotch area of his trousers, I couldn’t take any more. I let go of Paul’s hand, which I had been squeezing hard for the last few hours, and jumped out of my seat. Tears started to stream down my face and I could see all the reporters turning to look at me, but I didn’t care. It was bad enough to know Bridger had killed my little girl in cold blood, for some sick, perverted thrill. But this final indignity – the idea of him sexually abusing our innocent five-year-old daughter – was too much to bear.
Paul, Dave and Hayley were close behind me but Hayley told Paul and Dave to go back into court while she calmed me down.
‘How could he do it?’ I sobbed. ‘How could he do that to my little baby?’
Hayley soothed me for a few minutes, although there wasn’t much she could say.
‘I know I should have seen it coming,’ I said. ‘But it took me by surprise. It’s just a bit too much, hearing about it all.’
‘I know,’ Hayley replied. ‘Do you want to go back in? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.’
I knew I could have easily spent the rest of the day in our holding room, leaving Paul to hear the remaining evidence on his own, but I felt that would have been letting April down.
‘No,’ I said, wiping my tears away. ‘Let’s go back in.’
After court finished, we had a short meeting with Andy before Dave and Hayley drove us back to our cottage. My mum, Dai and Fil came with us. We all went out for a pub meal to try and take our minds off things, before my mum took me for a long walk. There was a lot to get our heads around, but we were trying our best.
‘It’s been a very emotional day,’ I wrote, before I went to bed. ‘Coral and I have struggled even though we knew some of this was coming.
‘Andy talked to us about the day. We’re happy with how things are going and so are the police. We all agreed that Mark Bridger just doesn’t make sense in anything he says and that it’s looking good for us so far.
‘I love you, April. Dad xxx.’
The next day we had a day off from court, as the jury were being taken to Machynlleth to trace April’s last steps. They were then driven to Ceinws to see Bridger’s cottage. Bridger had waived his right to accompany them and we weren’t surprised. We can only imagine how the people of Machynlleth would have reacted if they’d heard he was visiting the town.
We had a quiet day. Hayley took Coral, Melere and my mum to Chester shopping and afterwards we had a few games of pool and table tennis.
‘It says on the news that the jury has been to Bryn-y-Gog, the town clock, the leisure centre and Ceinws where Mark Bridger lived,’ I wrote. ‘Today, I feel a lot better having had a rest. Coral seems good, too. I think she’s relieved some things are now out in public. I am too.
‘I love you, April. Dad xxx.’
On the Friday, Elwen read out a short statement from Jazmin, who had told the police that Bridger had sent her a friend request on Facebook shortly before April was taken. This sent shivers down my spine and we were relieved when court finished at lunchtime. This meant we could go home early for the weekend. Jazmin, Harley and the dogs were delighted to see us and it was good to be home. The weekend seemed to pass especially quickly and before we knew it was time to go back to Mold.
The May Bank Holiday traffic meant the roads were very busy and the journey took twice as long. By the time we got back to our accommodation, Coral had a bad stress headache and I was feeling sick with nerves. The reason we were so anxious was that Amy was due to take the stand the next day. She was the last person to see April alive and she had identified Bridger’s vehicle. She was arguably the most important witness in the case and a conviction could potentially depend on what she said in court. It was a huge burden for a seven-year-old to bear.
Neither of us slept well, even when I moved into the spare room. When we got up, Coral was shaking violently and I wasn’t faring much better.
Amy was to give evidence via video link from another room in the court. The judge, Mr Justice Griffith-Williams, Bridger’s QC, Brendan Kelly, and Elwen all removed their wigs, so as not to intimidate her.
When Amy flashed up on the screen, she looked so small and vulnerable. She was hugging one of her teddies and wearing a T-shirt with the word ‘love’ emblazoned across it. Mr Justice Griffith-Williams was very patient with her. He tried to put her at ease by asking her teddy’s name. Amy replied he was called Minty and the judge told her that Minty would look after her.
Amy was played a video of her police interview from the day after April was taken. Here, she described how she and April had been playing with Louise, but Louise’s dad had told them they couldn’t come into their house, as it was dinner time.
‘We were going to go home and it was getting dark,’ she said in the video. ‘I said, “April, come on.” I looked around and saw her by the Land Rover van. I saw her by the person who was waiting by the van.’
In the video, Amy said the Land Rover looked ‘quite familiar’, but she was surprised that April had got into it.
‘The man didn’t take her in the van,’ she said. ‘She got in the van with a happy face. She wasn’t upset.’
The police officers in the video asked Amy some more questions and she said Bridger appeared to be ‘waiting for someone’, but she didn’t think it was April.
‘I think April wanted to go,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why. Her mum and dad told her not to get into cars like that. The man didn’t put her in the car. She wasn’t crying; she was happy. The van just drove off. I didn’t know she was going to get in the van.’
This was very difficult for Coral and me to hear, but we tried our best to keep it together. Amy was then cross-examined by Brendan Kelly. He was gentler with her than he would have been with an adult witness, but he was still quite forthright and I couldn’t help but think his manner would have been a little unnerving for a small child. He suggested that Amy was lying – that she hadn’t seen April getting into the car, that in fact she’d seen her being carried by Bridger after he’d run her over. But no matter how many times she was probed, Amy refused to crumble.
‘She climbed over the back seat but the man didn’t carry her,’ she said, firmly.
‘You’ve helped the court a great deal,’ Mr Justice Griffith-Williams told her, after Brendan Kelly had finished. ‘Off you go.’
Amy hugged her teddy and simply said: ‘Thank you.’
I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Amy had been amazing, far stronger than we’d ever expected. She hadn’t buckled under the pressure of cross-examination, which is more that can be said for some adults. It seemed that almost everyone – including Bridger’s lawyer – had underestimated her.
The next witness was Amy’s mum. She said that when she asked Amy what had happened, Amy said she had told April not to get into the vehicle but that April replied that she would be ‘fine’. My stomach knotted at the thought of April’s lovely, childlike innocence. She was so sweet-natured, trusting of everyone she met, and completely unaware of the evils the world held. It wouldn’t have entered her head that the man she’d encountered on that fateful autumn night could have done her any harm. Bridger was a callous predator and I could feel my hatred for him pumping through my veins as he sat in front of me, consumed by pathetic self-pity.
On the way back to our cottage that evening, Dave told us that the guards watching Bridger had nicknamed him ‘Tiny Tears’ because he was always crying and saying he couldn’t cope with being in prison.
‘He’d better bloody get used to it,’ I said. Now Amy’s evidence had gone so well I was feeling much more confident of a conviction. We didn’t want to take anything for granted, but it was becoming harder to see how the jury could continue to buy Bridger’s lies, if they ever had done.
‘Amy was a star today,’ I wr
ote that night. ‘She did very well. Brendan Kelly, Mark Bridger’s barrister, asked her a lot of questions but she told it as it was. Amy’s mum was also a witness and she did very well too.
‘Both Coral and I feel better now Amy has finished her evidence. We feel she was badgered a bit by Kelly but she spoke truly and we are very impressed by her. It was hard listening to her, especially when she said April went into Mark Bridger’s car on her own with a happy face.
‘I feel a lot better. I can’t see how he can get out of this now.
‘I love you, April. Dad xxx.’
The rest of the second week passed uneventfully. On one morning there was a fire alarm, which was particularly stressful for Coral, as she still wasn’t good at dealing with crowds, but Dave took us out in the car for half an hour, which helped calm her down. The prosecution also called some police witnesses and plotted Bridger’s movements on the day April disappeared. This was quite hard to follow and took its toll on both of us. Although this evidence hadn’t been as tough for us to hear as some of the information already put before the court, I still could find myself in tears without a moment’s notice. Both Coral and I found it impossible to tell when the emotion of it all would hit us – all we knew was that we’d feel paralysed by grief when it did.
‘I cried myself to sleep last night,’ I wrote, one morning before Dave and Hayley collected us. ‘It just piles up on me and I have to cry. Court is stressful and very tiring but it seems like things are looking good for our case.
‘I love you, April. Dad xxx.’
As ever, coming home at the weekend was hard, knowing April wouldn’t be there to greet us. It had been my mum’s turn to watch Jazmin and Harley and we were relieved when she told us that they’d both been well behaved.
A few friends dropped by over the course of the evening to see how we were doing. All of them remarked on how strong we seemed as a couple and how, no matter what was thrown at us, we faced it together. Until now, Coral and I had been muddling through, doing what we could to keep our heads above water. Often, the strain would get to us and we’d have a small spat or a few cross words and we’d both feel worse until we made up. It almost hadn’t occurred to me that this was completely natural and that we were actually doing much better than most couples in our position. I remembered the frightening statistics I’d heard about marriage break-ups following the murder of a child, but they only made me more determined than ever to keep fighting for what Coral and I had. Through the eyes of others, I could see that we were two halves of a whole – there was no way either of us could have ever faced this torment alone.