April Jones – jurors visit house where blood was found

The pictures were taken by police and are of the inside of the cottage where defendant Mark Bridger lived at the time of April’s disappearance.

Bridger, 47, is accused of murdering the five-year-old after he abducted her as she played outside her home in Machynlleth, mid-Wales, on October 1 last year. April’s body has never been found.

The trial jury were taken on a site visit of the main areas of Machynlleth including Bridger’s former home, Mount Pleasant, in Ceinws.

Following their visit, the court released photographs of the inside of the house which are part of the prosecution’s evidence in the case.

Skull found in ash

The prosecution’s says traces of the child’s blood were found at various locations in the cottage and bone fragments from a “juvenile skull” were found in the ash of a woodburner.

Bridger denies the charges and instead says that he ran April over in a car accident and then “blanked” out and cannot remember what he did with her.

One of the photographs shows Bridger’s living room and the wood burner in which bone fragments consistent with being from a juvenile skull were found in the ash, the court has heard.

Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting, told the jury earlier this week that when police searched Bridger’s house he had carried out an “extensive clean up” – but that he failed to get rid of all the evidence.

It follows allegations that Bridger had been viewing pornography on the day April disappeared.

Traces of blood

Traces of blood were found in the living room, hallway and bathroom – and it matched April’s DNA, the court heard.

There was a concentration of blood found around the wood burner in the living room, the jury heard. Around the wood burner were a number of knives, including a boning knife, which was badly burnt

Miss Evans said there was a “one in a billion” match to April’s DNA and the defence accepts it was the young girl’s blood.

Detergent

She said there had been attempts to clean away the blood stains and that when police entered the house for the first time there was a “strong smell of detergent, and a smell of cleaning products, air freshener and washed clothes”.

She added: “There was nothing which would strike the eye as April’s blood, it was only after careful forensic analysis that this evidence emerged.”