A 16-year-old boy has been found guilty of abducting, raping and murdering Alesha MacPhail

News24xx.com -  After abducting, raping and murdering a girl aged six-year-old named Alesha MacPhail, a 16-year-old boy has been found guilty.

Alesha’s body was found in woods on the Isle of Bute on July 2 last year, hours after she was reported missing from the house her father shared with his parents and partner on the island, the place where the schoolgirl was staying for part for the holidays.

From a post-mortem examination, known that Alesha had 117 separate injuries. She had died from significant and forceful pressure to her neck and face, and partially of injuries inflicted while she was still alive. 

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow took three hours to find the teenager, guilty unanimously, following a nine-day trial. Judge Lord Matthews told the boy he had committed some of the wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard. 

But, the teenager had lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming Toni McLachlan, the partner of Alesha’s father Robert, or Rab, MacPhail for Alesha’s death. 

As the accused was led downstairs a man in the public gallery shouted ‘evil’ and another said ‘fucking scumbag’. 

Alesha's mother, Georgina Lochrane, said, "Words cannot express just how devastated I am to have lost my beautiful, happy, smiley wee girl. I am glad that the boy who did this has finally been brought to justice and that he will not be able to inflict the pain on another family."

A forensic scientist told the court DNA matching the accused was found on Alesha’s body and clothes, with some samples at odds of a billion to one of being his. 

The court heard the couple used to sell cannabis to the accused. 

The judge will on Friday consider an application from media outlets to lift a ban on identifying the boy.

 

 

 

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