Little April has touched the heart of a nation

As Mark Bridger begins his sentence for the abduction and murder of five-year-old April Jones, her parents also face a life sentence.

For them the ordeal of the court case is over. Coral Jones, 43, her voice shaking but her conviction firm, stood outside the courtroom last week and spoke bravely about what this crime had done to their family and their community and she thanked all those who had helped tirelessly in the search for April.

Watching her, every mum, dad and grandparent in the country must have shared the sense of horror and pity at a loss beyond all telling.

How do you cope when your child is gone for ever? How do you handle the pain of knowing there will always be an empty place in your home and your heart?

Coral has said she feels guilty because she allowed April out to play that evening. Who hasn’t made a snap decision and said: “Yes you can have another 15 minutes before bedtime”?

Imagine living with the lifelong remorse of that decision.

This tragic abduction and murder touched the lives of so many people.

The little Welsh community of Machynlleth united in a bid to find this child. Their faces and voices became known to us on the evening news. The local minister who spoke so movingly about the “bright-faced, sweet little girl who was April Jones”.

The pink ribbons they carried. The pink balloons they released into a blue sky. The long hours of searching, hoping and praying that April would be found.

Then the shock and horror when one of their own community was found guilty of her murder.

In the weeks ahead it will be hard for them to come to terms with the darkness which visited their sleepy little Welsh town.

For heartbroken Paul and Coral Jones, who were friendly with Mark Bridger, there is the added pain of knowing they’d trusted him. As April trusted him when she climbed into his van that evening.

As parents we impress upon our children the message don’t go with strangers. But what about the man or woman who isn’t a stranger? That’s the scariest thing.

This abduction of a child who’d gone swimming that afternoon and whose last image was captured on a CCTV camera skipping gaily out of a doorway sums up

all our deepest fears as parents.

You cannot know everything. You cannot protect your children when such evil exists and when by pure chance it snatches from you that which you hold most dear.

Mark Bridger’s cunning and cruelty knew no bounds. So vile was this man that he could not even give Coral and Paul Jones the only peace left to them the chance to know where their little girl’s body, or what remains of it, is hidden.

I believe that no one is beyond forgiveness and I hope that some day Bridger will reveal the truth and give April’s mum and dad the chance to lay her to rest.

Until then, I hold on to the words spoken by the female minister of the little church in Machynlleth: “While any of us in this community are alive who have lived through these events, one thing remains April Jones will never ever be forgotten.”