APRIL JONES’ GRIEVING PARENTS HIT BY SHOCKING NEW HEARTBREAK:
April Jones’ mum tells how cold sore left her husband brain damaged and unable to remember their daughter’s murder
THE father of schoolgirl April Jones cannot remember her horrific murder after he was struck by a freak brain virus.
Paul Jones’ wife Coral has been forced to remind him of what happened to their little girl after he could not understand why the tot had not visited him in hospital.
Paul, 49, broke down when Coral told him their precious five-yearold daughter had been killed.
In another devastating blow for the shattered couple, Paul has been left permanently brain-damaged because of the virus from a simple cold sore.
Doctors have told his family his is the worst case of the condition, known as encephalitis, they have ever seen.
Tearful Coral told our sister paper, the Sunday People: “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.
“Paul is 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 forgotten large chunks of his life and has no memory of the night April was abducted and murdered by evil Mark Bridger as she played on her bike.
Coral, 46, had to break the awful news after he recognised his daughter in a family album but did not know who she was.
The devastated mum told how Paul struggled to recall who April was at first but then faced the question of why she had not been to see him.
The mum of three broke the devastating news but kept the worst details of the case from him.
She said: “Paul is so frustrated by his condition and that fills me with fear. He 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.
“I couldn’t go on, 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.
“He loved her so much I can’t let him go through that again. I don’t know what he’d do if he knew the truth of what had happened to our little girl. Yet I know everything could come flooding back further down the line and I worry it will drive him even deeper into depression.”
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 the family home in Machynlleth, Mid Wales.
Despite the biggest police search in UK history, her remains were never fully recovered.
But police recovered masses of forensic evidence linking Bridger to the brutal crime, including fragments of the girl’s skull in the fireplace of his remote country cottage.
April’s devoted parents attended every day of the dad of six’s monthlong trial at Mold Crown Court. Yet Paul, who spent over 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. He also cannot remember his wedding or precious family holidays which his wife holds dear since the murder.
Coral said: “He remembers some people who were close to him, he can recognise their voices and their faces.
“Sometimes, he’ll talk about things which happened years ago but most of the last decade is gone. We’ve talked to him about holidays we’ve gone on to Spain, Florida and Australia, but he doesn’t remember being there.
“He used to love walking his dogs on the hills around Machynlleth. This gave him so much comfort after April was taken.
“For a long time, he’d walk up into the hills every day and tie a pink ribbon around a gate in her memory.
“But now, he wouldn’t even know how to get there. His memory is so bad that he would be lost as soon as he walked out of the front door.”
Paul is currently being cared for in Wales but devoted Coral is determined to one day bring him home.
She said: “Paul is not the man I married. We have to remind him to do the most basic things like wash and eat.”
Fitness fanatic Paul cycled from Edinburgh to London in April’s memory for the Missing People char- ity, just weeks before being hit by the virus. He was training for a triathlon when he developed a cold sore and started to develop flu-like symptoms.
Coral said: “He couldn’t get off the sofa and joked he had man flu. But one night he woke in the early hours, confused and hallucinating. I had to call an ambulance.”
Paul was rushed to hospital in nearby Aberystwyth, where doctors ran tests.
Coral was warned his life was on the line as he drifted in and out of consciousness. She said: “I volunteered to feed him and shave him, all myself. I stroked his arm and told him I was here for him.”
Doctors took two weeks to diagnose encephalitis, which makes the brain swell. Coral is plagued by thoughts of what might have been if the signs had been spotted earlier.
She said: “I was absolutely gobsmacked when I was told Paul’s illness had been caused by a cold sore.
“Some people suffer a little memory loss, but Paul’s brain had swollen so much, his was far worse.
“There are moments when I think ‘What if?’, would I have taken him to hospital earlier?
“Sometimes, I blame the doctors because it took them so long to figure out what was wrong.
“I wonder how much more we can take as a family. I’m on a lot of medication for depression but I try not to think ‘Why me?’.”
Paul appeared to be over the worst but alarm bells sounded for Coral early on when he could not recall their wedding, held six months before April went missing.
He recognised their children Jazmin, now 22, and Harley, 16, but he could not recall events of the last decade.
He was sent to a hospital in Machynlleth to be near his family but began to believe he was in jail. Coral said: “He felt really trapped there. On Christmas Day he tried to escape.
“He was allowed to come home for dinner but he ran off halfway through.
“We had to phone the police. We spent nearly three hours searching. Eventually, he called me because he had no idea where he was. “He wasn’t far from the house. “I told him to wait and the police picked him up. That was terrifying.”
A week later, Paul was transferred to a rehabilitation unit in Northampton.
Coral visited faithfully, taking family photos in a bid to jog his memory.
She said: “April was in some of them. I didn’t tell him what had happened to her, but he seemed to recognise her.”
Coral had to explain why April hadn’t visited Paul.
She said: “It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. Imagine going through all those moments twice.”
Coral developed agoraphobia after April’s death and struggled to leave the house without Paul.
She is now attempting to adapt to the crushing loneliness of her new life.
She said: “Paul and I were a team and I miss him every second of the day.
“I can’t go to the shops without my daughter or a friend.
“I visit Paul and he continually asks why he can’t come home with me. That’s really hard.”
Coral added: “I’m still hopeful one day I can get him home but only time will tell. 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.”