How will we ever get over losing our little fighter?

Mrs Jones, in a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor Elwen Evans, said April was born prematurely, weighing only 4lb and 2oz, and was in intensive care for two weeks.

The statement said: “Words alone cannot describe how we are feeling or how we manage to function on a daily basis, and I would never, ever want any other family to go through what we are and will go through for the rest of our lives.”

Mrs Jones described her daughter as a “little fighter” who was eventually diagnosed with cerebral palsy down her left side from her hip to her leg. She said she had to watch her other children, “grieve for the loss of their little sister who they would carry upstairs because sometimes she was in too much pain to walk”.

“I will never forget the night of October 1 2012. This was the night we allowed our daughter April to go out to play with friends, something she had done hundreds of times before, and this is the night that she never came home.

“Since that night, the estate is quiet, as children are no longer allowed out to play as they used to.

“As April’s mother I will live with the guilt of letting her go out to play on the estate that night for the rest of my life.

“She fought to come into the world, she fought to stay in this world, and he has taken her, not only from us, but from everyone who loved her.

“I will never see her smile again or hear her stomping around upstairs and onto the landing.

“We will never see her bring home her first boyfriend and
Paul will never walk her down the aisle.

“How will we ever get over it?”