The family of five-year-old April Jones will have to wait another two months before the man accused of her murder goes on trial.
Mark Bridger had been due to stand trial on Monday but the case was adjourned after his legal team applied to have it postponed "to make further inquiries".
The judge, Mr Justice Griffith Williams, made it clear that he wanted the trial to begin as soon as possible.
"Everyone knows my anxiety was that this matter must be brought to trial at the earliest opportunity," he said. "I'm very, very mindful of the terrible strain that this case is causing April's parents."
Bridger, 47, a former lifeguard, was arrested the day after the schoolgirl vanished while playing on her bicycle near her home in Machynlleth, mid Wales, on 1 October last year.
During a hearing at Mold crown court, north Wales, in January, Bridger, who lives in a tiny village close to Machynlleth, denied abduction, murder and intending to pervert the course of justice by concealing or disposing of the little girl's body.
Jones's parents, Coral and Paul, were at Mold crown court again on Monday. Wearing the pink ribbons that have come to symbolise hope that April may be found, they sat in the well of a packed court one, about five metres from Bridger.
Bridger wore a blue, open-necked shirt and jeans. He sat looking straight ahead in the dock, not making eye contact with April's parents. He had shaved off his beard since his last appearance.
The judge told the court: "This trial has been adjourned at the defence's request." He ordered that none of the matters discussed at the hearing could be reported and said the trial would be listed to begin on Monday 29 April.
April's disappearance sparked a massive outpouring of support for her family, with hundreds of people joining the search. The youngster's body has never been found despite a huge operation led by Dyfed-Powys police. She had been allowed to stay out late on the evening she vanished because her mother and father had received glowing reports of her at a parents' evening.