‘Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare’: The Abduction of April Jones

Abstract

If the press and public reactions to the disappearance of five-year-old April Jones shared one common characteristic it was their magnification of key elements of the story that plugged into the recurring narratives about child vulnerability explored in Chapters 3 and 4. In particular, what emerged from popular discourse around this ‘single sensational case’ (Cohen, 2002, p. xxiii) was a generalized sense of juvenile panic positioning children as continually susceptible to the predations of malevolent adults, especially familiar strangers. The following sections unpick how this quintessential abduction narrative played out in the public sphere in the seven-day period beginning with the initial police statement confirming that April was missing — and the broader lessons we might draw from the episode. We begin by analysing how the incident was identified, conceived and pursued, based on interviews with 10 national press journalists who worked on the story, before unpicking how it was framed on the page, both by professional newswriters and through the dialogue that active audience members entered into on newspaper discussion threads. We then consider what can be learnt from the general public reaction to news of the abduction, as articulated both on discussion threads and in face-to-face conversations between members of the parent focus groups, which were reconvened within weeks of April’s murder to discuss their responses to the case.

On Monday 1 October 2012, at approximately 10.30 p.m., Dyfed-Powys Police tweeted a short statement, describing how it was ‘increasingly concerned for the whereabouts of a five-year-old girl’ from the small Welsh town of Machynlleth. Early the next day it confirmed that April Jones had been abducted at around 7 p.m., after apparently climbing into a car which had pulled up close to where she was playing with friends. The story was immediately elevated to number one headline status across British national radio, television, online and print news. Over the ensuing week the police search for April received rolling coverage and dominated national (and many regional) newspaper front pages. Every twist was examined in minute detail — from the revelation that she needed medication for cerebral palsy to the tragic irony that she had been allowed to play out on the night she was taken as a treat for receiving a glowing school report. The day after April’s abduction, Mark Bridger, 46, was arrested in connection with her abduction. By Saturday, he had been charged with her murder. On Sunday it emerged that, far from being only vaguely familiar with each other, April and Bridger were indirectly related.