We hope McCanns find the peace we couldn’t April Jones’ parents

Support for hunt in Portugal from couple who lost their daughter April.

The body of five-year-old April Jones, who went missing from her home in Wales in October 2012, has never been found despite a murder conviction and massive search.

In the week that the same sniffer dog team who searched for April’s remains were drafted in to hunt for Madeleine McCann in Portugal, April’s parents speak to The Sunday Post about their hopes for Kate and Gerry.

And one year after their daughter’s killer was jailed, they reveal their desperate struggle to rebuild their lives.

It was an unspeakable tragedy. An innocent little girl snatched from a sleepy town and brutally murdered. And life for parents Coral and Paul Jones has been unbearably tough since they lost April.

Week upon week of waiting, hoping, praying for the closure they so desperately need to be able to move on. They still don’t know what happened to April, nor where she ended up.

The search, the biggest in British policing history, included specialist cadaver dogs. Two of those, springer spaniels Tito and Muzzy, and their handlers have been at work over the past few days on scrubland at Praia da Luz to find clues about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

That has brought memories flooding back for Coral, 42, and Paul, 45.

“The police and locals who hunted were absolutely brilliant,” Coral says. “They couldn’t have done more.

“Of course, April’s case was different. She was killed, but there is still hope that Madeleine could be alive. I hope that her parents get some results and at least find some peace. I don’t think we’ll ever get that.”

Paul adds: “Seven years is a long time to be waiting for answers. It must be heartbreaking. It’s the not knowing that hurts the most. That was our biggest fear.

“We may still not know where April is, but at least we got something.”

It’s now one year since Mark Bridger was sentenced to a life behind bars for April’s abduction, murder and perverting the course of justice. He’s never revealed where her body is.

“He got life, but it’s not enough,” says Coral. “Just the thought of him makes me feel sick. I really hope he suffers and has a hard time because we’re having a hard time too. While he can choose to forget, we have to live with it.”

April may be gone, but in the three-bed terraced home on the Bryn-y-Gog estate in Machynlleth the couple share with their other children Jazmin, 18, and Harley, 12, her memory lives on.

Photos of the youngster line the walls, her smiling face is pinned on the fridge. A colourful picture she drew of a butterfly is framed and hangs proudly in the living room.

Her parents have matching tattoos of the pink ribbons which became renowned as a signal of hope in the schoolgirl’s memory. A stuffed padded envelope on the arm of the sofa is filled with homemade keyrings bearing the slogan “April’s fight”.

Outside, trees on the grass verge facing the house are adorned with pink teddies and ribbons. And a memory bench and picnic table sit alongside.

“This is the first thing Harley sees when he wakes up,” Paul says. “I can’t think of a better view.”

He points at a school portrait, one of the last photos taken of April before she disappeared. It’s one of the few treasured images the family have of her that wasn’t copied from their Facebook accounts and replicated in newspapers and on TV and websites across the globe.

“Nobody will ever get to see that,” he says. “It’s just for us.”

Coral is now riddled with health difficulties, including anxiety disorder agoraphobia. She no longer ventures out on her own and feels it hinders her ability to be a mum. “It tears me up because I used to be so independent,” she frowns. “It’s turned my whole life upside down. The emotion makes it so hard to do even the simplest of chores. I sleep a lot. It’s just exhausting.”

Paul’s experience is the opposite, extreme insomnia. He spends sleepless nights both trying to remember and to forget.

But on the positive side, losing April has brought the loving couple and their children closer together.

Laughing and joking, they share stories about April the way she used to bump down the stairs in her sleeping bag with Harley, how she loved nothing more than licking the mixing bowl while baking with her mum.

“We’ve become a really strong family unit,” Paul says. “I think we’ve always been strong, but I guess we just never noticed it before. I suppose you’d have to be to get through something like this.”

At times I feel a little awkward, a stranger invading precious memories of something so personal, so tragic. But for Coral and Paul, talking about April has become a way of life. From the day she went missing, they shared stories of their beloved daughter, hoping it may help stop the same tragedy happening to someone else.

“It doesn’t get any easier to talk about it, it gets harder every time,” Coral says, fighting back the tears. “And living with the agony every day, that’s difficult.”

For Paul, it’s different. “I find it easier,” he chips in. “I like people to know about April, what kind of girl she was. Talking about her helps me remember and I think raising awareness is the best thing we can do. It’s upsetting at the time, but if it saves one child and their family from meeting a similar fate, it’s a start.”

Their campaign for April’s Law to stop the spread of indecent images of children on the internet like the countless ones found on Mark Bridger’s computer brings some solace.

“It’s a slow process which could take up ten years but we’re determined to keep fighting until the legislation is passed,” Coral says. They’ve also just set up April’s Trust. It puts the tens of thousands of pounds donated to the search effort to good use supporting local schools, charities and search and rescue operations.

“We’ve made some changes which I think signals we’re starting to move on,” Coral says, reflecting on the tumultuous past 12 months. “We’ve started to go back to the places we used to share with April, those that were too painful to revisit before.

“We packed up some of her toys and put them in the attic or gave them to charity.

“And we redecorated the pink bedroom she used to share with Jazmin, but left a rim of the old paint around the window. We didn’t have the heart to let it all go.”

And, hard as it is, they “try not to mope” and “instead focus on the positives”.

“We could look into the possibility of suing Bridger or criminal damages, but why bother?” Paul says.

“It’s not going to get us any closer to the truth about where April is. Or give us justice or closure, which will only happen when April is found,if she is ever found.

“We may never know where she is but we live in hope. Perhaps one day someone will find something or come forward and say they seen something, but one thing is for sure … we’ll never get the answer from her killer.

“Him keeping it a secret just prolongs the agony. He took our daughter and our chance to say goodbye. But thankfully the one thing he can’t take is our memories.

“Sometimes we feel there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, but then we look back and realise just how far we’ve come.”

Their heartfelt hope is that the McCanns will find peace soon.

To sign the petition for April’s Law, visit www.gopetition.com/petitions/aprils-law-uk.html or @aprilslawuk.