Bone in Bridger’s fireplace ‘had human skull features’
EXPERTS found “very strong evidence” of burned human skull remains at the home of the man accused of murdering April Jones, a jury heard yesterday.
An anthropologist told the trial of Mark Bridger tiny bone fragments recovered from the fireplace in his living room had been so badly burned it was impossible to conduct a DNA test.
Former slaughterhouse worker Bridger, 47, denies abducting and murdering five-year-old April, who disappeared last October while playing near her home in Machynellth, mid-Wales.
On the final day of the prosecution case, the jury at Mold Crown Court heard from Dr Julie Roberts, a forensic anthropologist specialising in burnt skeletal remains.
She said she studied five bone fragments found in the debris of a log-burning fireplace at Bri d g e r ’s rented cottage in Ceinws, Powys.
Dr Roberts said: “There is strong evidence to support the view three fragments are human bone and very strong evidence to support the view they are burnt bone.”
The fourth was “more likely to be human” and the fifth was not possible to determine.
One fragment, selected because of its size, was subjected to a DNA test, she added, saying: “It wasn’t possible to obtain a DNA profile because it was so badly burned.”
Another bone fragment, studied under a microscope, had features similar to the skull of a child aged between four and eight years old, the jury heard.
The trial continues.