Missing girl: Anger as man appears in court

April Jones has now been missing for a week. Photo / Welsh police via AFP

The man charged with the murder of five-year-old Welsh girl April Jones struggled to hold back tears as he appeared in court.

Mark Bridger, 46, was remanded in custody after appearing before Aberystwyth magistrates Monday local time, BBC News reported.

He is due to appear at Caernarfon Crown Court in North Wales on Wednesday.

As well as the murder of April Jones, Mr Bridger has also been charged with child abduction and attempting to pervert the course of justice, the latter charge referring to the unlawful disposal and concealment of the young girl's body.

Mr Bridger wept in the dock as he confirmed he understood the charges against him.

Outside the court, around two dozen people hurled abuse and one person threw a bottle at the van carrying Mr Bridger to court.

Mr Bridger was arrested last Tuesday, local time, and initially charged with abduction, one day after April went missing on the Bryn-y-Gog estate in the town of Machynlleth.

Meanwhile the search for April continues, with her mother Coral making an impassioned plea on Facebook.

"April has still not been found, I am not giving up hope that she will come home, so please keep looking for my baby girl April.

"She's our world, the whole family are in bits as we don't know where she is," she wrote on the social media website, the Guardian reported.

- nzherald.co.nz