The man accused of murdering April Jones asked a 10-year-old girl to "come for a sleepover with his daughter" shortly before April's disappearance, a jury has heard.
A video recorded police interview with the youngster, two days after April went missing, was shown to the jury at Mark Bridger's trial at Mold Crown Court.
Former slaughterhouse worker Bridger, 47, denies abducting and murdering five-year-old April as she played near her home in Machynlleth, mid-Wales, on the evening of October 1 last year.
The prosecution claims Bridger snatched and murdered the youngster, who had cerebral palsy, in a sexually motivated attack.
Bridger claims he knocked her down in his car by accident and cannot remember what he did with her body because he was drunk.
In her interview, the 10-year-old youngster, who cannot be named because of her age, said she was cycling on the Bryn-Y-Gog estate with a friend when Bridger pulled up alongside her in his car.
She said: "I saw Mark in his car and he offered me to have a sleepover with his daughter at his house."
Bridger approached her about two hours before April vanished, she said.
"I phoned my mum about fiveish and asked if I could go on a bike ride around Bryn-Y-Gog," she said.
"I stopped on the pavement to speak to my mum and he parked up and spoke to me.
"He put his window down and started talking to me."
Asked how she reacted, the girl, who said she knew one of Bridger's children, said: "It was odd that he offered me a sleepover and I answered back and said, well that would be good, and he said, 'that's sorted then'."
She told the officer interviewing her that she cycled off and Bridger drove away and there was no further discussion.
She said she next saw him about five or 10 minutes later after she had cycled around the block with her friend.
The girl told the police he had parked up on the estate and was sitting in the driver's seat of his left-hand drive Land Rover and was leaning to one side.
She said Bridger had a newspaper across his lap and appeared to be speaking into a walkie talkie.
"I didn't speak to him. He put his hand up and put his thumb up towards me and I smiled and went on," she added.
She said it was "odd" that Bridger would ask her to a sleepover as she had never been to one with any of his children before.
The girl also described seeing April playing nearby with a friend at about the same time.
She said: "April was up the hill. I'm not quite sure if I saw her before or after I saw him."
Later that night, the girl said she was at home when there was a knock at the door.
"Two boys came to the house and said April had been kidnapped and would we be able to come and help find her," she said.
April's body has never been found despite the largest search operation ever staged by British police.
The trial continues.
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