Mark Bridger weeps giving evidence at April Jones murder trial

Mark Bridger spoke for the first time in the trial in which he is accused of abducting and murdering the five-year-old in a "sexually motivated" attack.

His voice broke as he took the oath, before he admitted he had made up claims about having a military past. Bridger, 47, answered questions from his barrister, Brendan Kelly QC, about his history and about why he told the police he had been trained by the SAS and seconded to the British army.

Mr Kelly asked him: "You were asked a number of questions about your military experience. Have you ever been employed by the military?"

Bridger, wearing a light blue shirt with a clearly visible snake tattoo on his left forearm, said: "No, I have not."

"Have you in the past told people that you have been employed by the military?" Mr Kelly asked.

He said: "Yes I have."

Bridger, of Ceinws, mid-Wales, also denies intending to pervert the course of justice by disposing of, concealing or destroying April's body.

In his testimony today, he said the lies about his past came after moving to Machynlleth, adding: "Everyone seemed to want to know who I was, where I was from, my past, my present.

"So I had always been interested in the military. I just said I am ex-military and people just took that as what I did.

"I didn't want them to know I had had problems with my past. That stuck with me for . . . until now."

Bridger told Mold Crown Court that he was born on November 6, 1965 in Surrey and had served as an engineering apprentice after failing to complete an engineering diploma at Croydon College.

After working as a welder for some time he began work as a firefighter at the London Fire Brigade. But he told the court he had to quit after six months when he was 19 or 20 when his girlfriend got pregnant.

He said he left the area and moved to Wales when he fell out with his parents.

He said when he moved to Wales he had nothing and was at first living in a tent on the beach when he was about 21 or 22 before he got a job.

April's disappearance, on October 1 last year, sparked the biggest search operation in British policing history. Her body has never been found.

The prosecution say Bridger snatched and murdered April in a "sexually motivated" attack.

Bridger says he accidentally killed April when he ran her over and accepts that he must have got rid of her body. But he says he cannot remember how he disposed of the body because he was suffering memory loss caused by alcohol and panic.

The trial continues.