April Jones’ sister Jazmin reveals how child killer Mark Bridger also targeted HER before murdering tragic youngster
Her younger sister was abducted and murdered by Mark Bridger in 2012 but he had tried to befriend Jazmin on Facebook a year before April's death
APRIL Jones' sister Jazmin told today how she was targeted by murderer Mark Bridger a year before he brutally killed her younger sister.
She appeared on This Morning and discussed how she had received a Facebook friend request from the man who would go on to murder April.
Jazmin, now 21, said she was a teenager when he first approached her through social media.
She said: "I think it was a year before that [April's death], I got a friend request that said Mark Bridger and a profile picture and I messaged him and said ‘Who are you, why are you adding me?’
"And he said ‘I know your family, I’m friends with your dad, I’m friends with your mum.’
"And I said ‘But you don’t know me, who are you?’
“I sat down in the living room with dad and I said ‘Who is Mark Bridger?’ and he said ‘We do know him enough to say hi in the street, but that’s about it, he used to live in the same block as us.’ And I was like why is he adding me? He [dad] was like, ‘It’s a bit strange that a 30-something man is trying to add a young girl.’”
She added: “The police came to the house and said we’ve found these photos of you and can you mark where he might of got them from and who is in the photo and where it is - and it was quite shocking.
“It was quite a shock. I was, kind of numbed to it. I didn’t know what to think or say.
"Seeing the photos, they’re off Facebook, completely off Facebook and I hadn’t even accepted him as a friend and thinking my profile was private as well was just shocking that he’d so easily got them.”
Jazmin was 16 when schoolgirl April was killed by pervert Mark Bridger in 2012 – after he snatched her as she played outside her home in Machynlleth, mid Wales.
She is now throwing her weight behind campaigning for tougher sentences for sex offenders and has turned her back on drink for good - after struggling to cope following her sister's death.
Now her petition for April's Law has reached more than 100,000 signatures and is set to be debated in Parliament.
Former detective Mark Williams Thomas also appeared on This Morning and explained: “April’s Law is three elements: one it’s to keep child sex offenders on the register for life.
"Secondly it’s about talking to the authorities and particularly the social media and the internet providers to say you need to do more to stop child abuse material being available online and of course that’s because Bridger was not only looking at photographs of local girls but he was going and seeking out child abuse material.
"And then the third element which is in relation to sentencing and increasing the sentencing in respect to sex offenders."
Child killer Bridger is serving life at Wakefield Prison, West Yorks for murdering April.
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