Judge now summing up the case against Mark Bridger who denies all charges against him.
Imho I don't think the jury will be out for very long.
A jury in the trial of the man accused of murdering April Jones is expected to retire to consider its verdicts later today.Mark Bridger, 47, is accused at Mold Crown Court of snatching and murdering the five-year-old in a "sexually motivated" attack.Bridger, a former slaughterhouse worker from Ceinws, denies abduction, murder and intending to pervert the course of justice.He claims he killed April when he accidentally "crushed" her with his Land Rover but cannot remember what he did with the body because he was d*unk and panicking.In her closing speech to the jury yesterday, Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting, said: "The evidence overwhelmingly compels the conclusion that the defendant is guilty of each count in this case."Beginning his address, Brendan Kelly QC, defending, urged the jury to put aside the "obvious emotions" attached to the case and decide their verdict on the evidence.He said: "Mark Bridger denies these offences, he denies the inferences which you have been invited to draw, he challenges the 'compelling' evidence which the crown advances, he says he is not guilty of these offences."Beginning his summing up, trial judge Mr Justice Griffith Williams gave the jury legal directions and urged them to conduct a "dispassionate review of the evidence."April disappeared as she was playing with a friend near their homes on the Bryn-Y-Gog estate, Machynlleth, Powys, on October 1 last year. |
still keeping everything crossed that however small the odds are they find her alive
