April Jones' family launch new petition on sex offenders

Five-year-old April Jones and Mark Bridger

The family of murdered schoolgirl April Jones have started a new petition calling for all sex offenders to remain on the register for life.

The five-year-old was killed by paedophile Mark Bridger after being snatched from outside her home in Machynlleth, Powys, on 1 October, 2012.

April's parents Paul and Coral Jones are hoping the petition will prompt a change in the law.

"The more signatures we get the more fight we have," said Mrs Jones.

The new petition follows April's Law petition which was set up in 2013, which attracted 70,000 signatures.

Mrs Jones said she hoped it would attract 100,000 signatures which would allow for it to be discussed in Parliament.

Unable to track down the author of the original petition, the family launched a new one hoping for the following three key aspects:

• For all sex offenders to remain on the register for life

• For service providers and internet search engines to be better policed over images of child abuse

• A call for tougher sentences for people caught with indecent images of children

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Mrs Jones said: "It's three simple things, but we're hoping a new law will help other families.

"It's nearly four years on and we're still affected by it, and we don't want any other family to go through what we have."

April's sister Jazmin said April's death had a huge impact on her life.

"I shared a bedroom with her and me and my brother were always together with her," she said.

"We didn't really know what to do with ourselves.

"It took me two years to go and get help because I didn't want to admit that I was struggling and seem like the weak one in the family."

Mark Bridger was given a whole life jail term in 2013 after being found guilty of April's murder.

He was not on the sex offenders list, but indecent images of young children were found on his computer.

Jazmin said a year before April's death, he had attempted to approach her when she was 14-years-old.

"He contacted me on Facebook and tried to add me as a friend," she said.

"He was trying to say that he was friends with my mum and dad just to get me to accept."