Parents' plea as man, 46, arrested over missing girl

News Reporter

Wednesday 3 October 2012

The parents of missing five-year-old-girl April Jones have made an impassioned plea for her abductor to "let her come home to us".

FEARS: The disappearance of April Jones sparked a large-scale search involving police, mountain rescue teams and volunteers from the 2000-strong community of Machynlleth. Main picture: PA

Custom byline text:

Helen McArdle

In an emotional statement read out by police leading the hunt for the youngster, Coral and Paul Jones said their "lives have stopped" since their daughter was taken away in a vehicle while playing outside their home on Monday night.

They said: "Last night our lives were shattered when our beautiful little girl, who was out playing with friends, was taken from us. We are devastated and our lives have stopped."Please, please if you have our little girl let her come home to us."It came as police continued to question Mark Bridger, 46, who has been arrested in connection with April's abduction. She is believed to have got into a Ford Connect van or LandRover type vehicle while playing with friends in Machynlleth, mid-Wales.Police revealed last night that an his L-registered left-hand driver LandRover had been impounded.Many residents in the town of 2000 people, who have been searching for her since the alert was raised, were due to resume the search this morning.The hunt involves hundreds of police using helicopters and infra-red sensing equipment along with mountain rescue teams.Mr Bridger was said by police to be local to the Machynlleth area of mid-Wales and that he would have been familiar to the schoolgirl.April's friends had told police she appeared to get willingly into the driver's side of a light-coloured van at around 7pm on Monday evening while playing on her bike with other children on the Bryn-y-Gog housing estate. Unconfirmed reports last night suggested that Mr Bridger's own child was among those with April and that he had recently split up with his girlfriend. Mr Bridger was caught on foot by police on patrol to the north of the town around 3.30pm, just an hour before Mrs Jones, 40, and her husband, 43, were due to appeal for her return.Detectives said their priority remained to track down and recover the girl "safe and well", as they cordoned off a stretch of the A487 where Mr Bridger's empty LandRover was being examined by forensics officers. Special officers and mounted police were working through the night using thermal imaging cameras to search the area around the road, including a railway. Police also confirmed they were also looking closely at the movements of known registered sex offenders living in the area and are also looking at whether April's abduction is linked to the attempted abduction of a schoolboy in the Aberystwyth area around a week ago.Detective Superintendent Reg Bevan, from Dyfed Powys Police, said they had been searching for Mr Bridger in relation to the investigation. He said: "We were pursuing a number of inquiries, some of those were searching addresses. We were looking for this individual so we knew who we were looking for and as a result we have had a number of patrols in the area and we have come across this individual."Describing Mr Bridger's arrest as "significant", a police spokesman added: "We are still pursuing all lines of inquiry with a view that April is still alive and we will continue to do so until we find her."We will not focus all of our efforts just on this individual." Around 200 volunteers from the local community had been co-ordinated into groups of 20 by police to scour the area.Trained officers have also been seen searching banks for signs of April along the River Dyfi.April's godmother, Mair Raftree, 41, from Aberystwyth, who has helped with the search operation, said: "She's a quiet girl, and an important member of her family. She would never go with anybody and ask for a lift. We just want her back safely."

Contextual targeting label:

Automotive

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Parents' plea as man, 46, arrested over missing girl

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED