Bridger had denied the charges saying he ran over April when she was playing outside her home in mid Wales and could not remember where he’d put her body.
When April went missing on October 1 last year it sparked the biggest Police search in UK history. Fragments of April’s bones were later found in Bridger’s house.
Today the jury in Mold Crown Court took four hours to convict Bridger of abducting and murdering April and of unlawfully disposing of and concealing her body with intent to pervert the course of justice.
April’s mother Coral Jones next to a police photo of Bridger
Bridger, who is the son of a City of London police officer told a priest in jail that he had thrown April’s body into a river.
But detectives are sceptical about this confession and think that Bridger dismembered April’s body at his cottage, Mount Pleasant, and then disposed of it in various places.
The discovery of explicit images of child sex abuse on Bridger’s laptop is likely to prompt a fresh debate on links between the viewing of such images and sex killings.
Detective Superintendent Andy John, the senior investigating officer, said: “For me the computer evidence points towards an individual who is evil, manipulative and has premeditated this. The unhealthy interest he has in indecent images of children for me is a clear indicator that this individual was going to commit something as horrific as he did.”
Bridger, a father of six children by four women, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. He will initially be put on suicide watch and will receive protection from other inmates for the rest of his time behind bars.
Images Getty
