It’s the biggest missing person’s search in British police history. In October 2012 April Jones disappeared near her home in the town of Machynlleth, Wales. Within 24 hours local man Mark Bridger was arrested on suspicion of her abduction. April Jones: The Interrogation Tapes, Channel 5 2020
This is the hour by hour story of how police tried to extract the truth from the man they believed had murdered April. ibid.
By placing himself at the scene with April, Bridger is making it hard for detectives to tell truth from lies. ibid.
Despite the outburst, detectives are beginning to doubt Bridger’s sincerity. ibid.
Bridger says he killed April but he doesn’t know where she is. ibid.
One of the biggest search operations in UK police history. The Disappearance of April Jones, news, Channel 4 2022
Police are searching for a five-year-old girl. She is feared to have been abducted in mid-Wales. ibid.
I was completely blindsided by what he went on to tell us. ibid. rozzer
Mark Bridger after his arrested he was compliant, cooperation, in the custody area he seemed calm. The Disappearance of April Jones II, rozzer
That piece of information [forensics] directly contradicted Mark Bridger’s account when he said the injuries to her were accidental. The Disappearance of April Jones III, rozzer
Machynlleth, North Wales, 1st October 2012: An alleged abduction of a child, April Jones. British Police: Our Toughest Cases s1e3: Mark Bridger, 2019
As the search gathered momentum, the press became aware of April’s disappearance. ibid.
The only witness police found was one of the children in the village. ibid.
‘Mark Bridger’s name came into the frame.’ ibid. rozzer
BRIDGES, JOHN: Signs of a Psychopath TV -
I was doing something that needed to be done. Signs of a Psychopath s5e2: I Was in a Zone, Bridges
July 6th 2012, 3:30 pa.m. Bismark, North Dakota: Investigators discover that the passenger, Lee Clay, has multiple stab wounds to his torso and neck. Suspecting foul play, the driver [sic], John Bridges, is interviewed at the hospital. ibid.
BRIDGES, MICHAEL: Crime Stories TV - CBC News Canada online -
We didn’t have a body, we didn’t have an identified crime scene, we had no independent witnesses and we didn’t have a confession. Crime Stories: Bad Tempered Boyfriend, rozzer, 2012
Erin Chorney: the 18-year-old worked part time at a dry cleaners ... Erin usually called her parents when staying out late, but that night she hadn’t. ibid.
The month before Erin’s disappearance, the relationship had taken an even darker turn. That meant a more probing interview with Erin’s boyfriend. ibid.
Bridges took the undercover officer to the place where he’d hidden Erin’s body. ibid.
An intricate RCMP sting operation helped convict a Manitoba man of first-degree murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend, whom he buried in an elderly woman’s grave.
Jurors in the trial of Michael Bridges deliberated for less than seven hours to reach the verdict Wednesday night. The 25-year-old will spend 25 years in prison with no chance for parole.
Justice John Menzies told Bridges he felt alarmed by the ‘callousness’ of Bridge's actions and said he showed a ‘cold, calculating, criminal’ mind.
Bridges confessed to an undercover officer posing as a member of a crime gang that he choked Erin Chorney in April 2002 when she refused to drop assault charges against him.
He admitted he panicked when she became unconscious and decided to ‘finish her off’ by strangling her with an electrical cord and submerging her head in water. CBC News Canada online article 30th June 2005, ‘Sting Operation Helps Convict Manitoba Man of Murder’
BRIDGEWATER, CARL murder [viz Miscarriages of Justice: Bridgeater 4]: The Times - Guardian unlimited - New Statesman - Interview with a Murderer TV - Ann Whelan - David Wilson - Birmingham Mail - Rough Justice TV -
Two former police officers may face criminal charges after three men jailed for murdering Carl Bridgewater were freed yesterday amid allegations of ‘serious, substantial and widespread police malpractice’.
The detectives have been interviewed about a forged confession which was instrumental in bringing the men to trial and sending them to jail for 18 years. A third officer implicated by new scientific evidence has since died.
Yesterday the Crown accepted that the fresh evidence left the prosecution case fundamentally flawed, and Michael Hickey, Vincent Hickey and James Robinson were freed on bail pending an April hearing when they will almost certainly be cleared. The manslaughter conviction against Patrick Molloy, who died in 1981, was quashed immediately.
After the hearing, the Prime Minister said that he expected an inquiry into the original convictions and another within the police. Merseyside detectives are investigating the way Staffordshire Police conducted the murder inquiry after 13-year-old Carl was found shot dead at an isolated farmhouse near Stourbridge. The officers named in court yesterday were, however, from the West Midlands force, assigned to the case by the regional crime squad. The Times article Ford & Farrell & Midgley 22nd February 1997, ‘Police may face Bridgewater trial’
The Crown Prosecution Service has decided no charges will be brought against 10 police officers accused of fabricating evidence against the Bridgewater Four.
When Michael Hickey, Vincent Hickey and Jim Robinson were freed by the Court of Appeal last year after 17 years in jail, the CPS was asked to investigate three separate allegations against the Staffordshire police detectives.
Merseyside police carried out the inquiry, but because there is no realistic prospect of any conviction from evidence gathered during the murder investigations of newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater, they decided not to press charges.
The fourth man convicted of killing Carl, Pat Molloy, died in prison in 1981.
The allegations focused on claims that an interview with Vincent Hickey was fabricated to induce Pat Molloy to sign a confession and that officers falsified evidence about a conversation during a car journey with Mr Molloy. Admissions by Michael Hickey were alleged to have been made up.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, David Calvert-Smith, said he appreciated the decision could be ‘difficult to understand’. The CPS could only act if there was enough evidence to be put before a court to make a conviction realistic.
Michael Hickey's mother, Ann Whelan, described the decision as ‘horrendous, outrageous and deplorable’. Guardian Unlimited, Helen Carter 24th December 1998, ‘Police in miscarriage of justice will not be prosecuted’