April’s dad forgot she was killed.. I had to tell him again Paul’s memory of tot killing wiped out by rare brain
Bug
THE dad of schoolgirl April Jones could not remember her brutal murder after being struck down with a freak brain virus.
Grieving mum Coral has had to remind her husband of what happened to their precious daughter after he asked why she hadn’t visited him in hospital.
Paul Jones, 49, broke down as Coral told him five-year-old April had been killed.
He has been left permanently braindamaged because of a virus from a simple cold sore. Doctors say he has the worst case of the rare condition encephalitis they have ever seen.
Coral, 46, said: “How much more can my family take?
“I’ve already lost my daughter and now I have lost my soulmate and my rock and I feel so alone. He’s the only person who can truly understand the pain I have felt over losing April.
“People said we’d split after she died but we beat the odds and it was us against the world.
“Now, I know our marriage will never be the same.”
Paul has no memory of the night April was abduct ed and murdered by evil Mark Bridger as she played on her bike.
Coral had to break the awful news after he recognised his daughter in a family album but did not know who she was.
He eventually worked out April was his daughter, but then asked the devastated mum of three why his girl had not been to see him.
Coral had to tell him about their little girl’s grim fate but kept the worst details of the case from him.
AWFUL
She said: “Paul asked, ‘What happened to April?’ I had to tell him she was no longer with us and that she’d been killed.
“He broke down. It was an awful conversation because he was so emotional and it was so hard for me to speak about it, too.
“I just couldn’t tell him any more. It was like reliving it all over again.
“He’s been through enough. Learning the awful details of how April died once is horrendous enough.” Depraved Bridger, now 52,
was caged for life in 2013 after being found guilty of killing April in October 2012. He snatched her as she was playing on her bike near home in Machynlleth, Mid Wales.
Despite the biggest police search in UK history, her remains were never fully recovered.
Police found fragments of the girl’s skull in the fireplace of Bridger’s remote country cottage. April’s parents attended every day of Bridger’s month-long murder trial at Mold Crown Court. Yet Paul, who spent a year in hospital after falling ill 18 months ago, cannot remember a single detail. Like most of his memories from the last decade, his recollection of the case which shocked the nation has vanished completely. Fitness fanatic Paul cycled from Edinburgh to London in April’s memory for the Missing People charity just weeks before being hit by the virus.
GLAD
He was training for a triathlon when he developed a cold sore. Coral said: “He couldn’t get off the sofa and joked he had man flu. But one night he woke confused and hallucinating.” Paul was rushed to Bronglais General Hospital in nearby Aberystwyth. Doctors took two weeks to diagnose encephalitis, which makes the brain swell. Paul is now in care in Wales, but Coral is determined to one day bring him home. She said: “I won’t give up on him. “The other day, he held my hand and said: ‘I am glad it was you I married, Coral’. “Even though he can’t remember our wedding, that’s nice to hear.” geraldine.mckelvie@ trinitymirror.com
It was an awful conversation because it was so hard for me to speak about it CORAL JONES REVEALING HOW SHE BROKE NEWS TO HUSBAND