Mark Bridger tells Mold Crown Court he can't remember where he put April Jones' body

Bridger claims his memory went blank after he hit the five-year-old with a car

Mark Bridger under cross-examination at Mold Crown Court

The man accused of abducting and murdering schoolgirl April Jones in a sexually motivated attack today told a jury he put her body “somewhere where it has not been found”.

On his second day of cross examination Mark Bridger, 47, of Ceinws, mid-Wales, answered questions about the search for April's body.

Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting, told Mold Crown Court that after April's disappearance police mounted the biggest search in British history.

She said police had “looked everywhere”, and asked Bridger: “Where did you put the body?”

Bridger, who claims his memory has gone blank after he knocked April down in a car accident, said: “I can't recall. I still believe I have placed her somewhere.”

Miss Evans said April's body has not been found because Bridger was trying to cover up what he had done.

She said: “Why has April's body, not any a part of it, been found?”

The defendant replied: “I have put her somewhere where it hasn't been found.”

Bridger denied putting the body somewhere “carefully chosen”.

Miss Evans said: “It's just one of those things? That wherever you have put her was just a search site that the police never looked? Is that what you are saying?”

Bridger replied: “You are asking me to speculate here and I can't do that.”

Miss Evans added: “You really are not going to give us any assistance as to what you did?”

Bridger said he told police at the time about the places he had been and walked, including caves and rivers.

Miss Evans said police had been “up hill and down dale, down mine shafts and not found her anywhere”.

Bridger denies abduction, murder and intending to pervert the course of justice by disposing of, concealing or destroying April's body.

April disappeared on October 1 last year.

The prosecution say Bridger snatched and murdered her in a sexually motivated attack.

Bridger says he accidentally killed April when he ran her over and accepts he must have got rid of her body, but he says he cannot remember how he disposed of it because he was suffering memory loss caused by alcohol and panic.

Earlier the trial heard how Bridger viewed images of child pornography on his laptop on the day April went missing and that forensic investigators discovered traces of April's blood in Bridger's living room, hall and bathroom.

PA