Alesha killer finally admits rape and murder

The 16-year-old schoolboy convicted of the murder of Alesha MacPhail has finally admitted his crime.

During his trial, Aaron Campbell had repeatedly denied he abducted, raped and killed the six-year-old on the Isle of Bute last July.

However, his lawyer told the High Court in Glasgow ahead of sentencing that Campbell had admitted the crimes.

The judge, Lord Matthews, said the timing of Campbell’s admission was unusual.

He said it was not something he could recall, coming so soon after a conviction.

During his nine-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month Campbell claimed he had never met his victim and lodged a special defence naming the 18-year-old girlfriend of Alesha’s father as the killer.

Prosecutor Iain McSporran QC branded him a “confident liar” who had spun a web of deceit.

The teenager was unanimously found guilty of the crimes by a jury after a nine-day trial last month.

The judge will shortly confirm the minimum term Campbell will have to serve before being eligible for parole.

Campbell’s confession was contained in the criminal justice social report and the criminal psychologist’s report, which were prepared ahead of his sentencing.

Campbell’s defence QC, Brian McConnachie, said: “Clearly the most striking thing about both reports is the fact that in the reports Mr Campbell has admitted responsibility for the rape and murder.”

Mr McConnachie said background reports on Campbell highlighted a range of psychotic traits and expressed concerns about “sexually harmful behaviour”.

The QC admitted he had never dealt with such a case and acknowledged determining a minimum prison term was complicated by Campbell’s age.

He also told the court it was hard to assess his client’s risk of reoffending as he had yet to reach adulthood.

Mr McConnachie described Campbell’s upbringing as “less than ideal” but said there were absolutely no mitigating factors for his crime.

Abducted from her bed

Following his conviction last month, the judge, Lord Matthews, lifted a restriction on naming the teenager and said: “I can’t think of a case in recent times that has attracted such revulsion.”

Alesha, from Airdrie in Lanarkshire, was just days into a holiday when she was abducted from her bed.

She was reported missing from her grandparents’ home on Ardbeg Road, Rothesay, at 06:23 on 2 July last year.

Dozens of islanders joined the search for the child but at 08:54 her naked body was discovered in a wooded area in the grounds of the former Kyles Hydropathic Hotel.

A post-mortem examination later revealed she had suffered 117 injuries and died from significant pressure being applied to her face and neck.

The child’s bare feet were unmarked which proved she was carried to her death, a walk which would have taken up to 17 minutes.

Campbell, who lived on the same street, was arrested after his mother contacted police.

She had become concerned about his movements in the early hours of 2 July after reviewing footage captured by CCTV cameras outside her home.

Initially she suspected he may have seen something as he came and went three times from the detached property between 01:54 and 04:07.

But the truth was more sinister.

The CCTV allowed officers to compile a timeline of Campbell’s movements.

Separate footage from two houses on Marine Place captured an eerie figure walking along the shoreline at about 02:25.

The individual appeared to be carrying something in front of them.

Campbell’s DNA was later found on Alesha’s body and on the clothes she had worn to bed.

The jury were told the odds of the samples belonging to anyone else were more than one in a billion.

The teenager lodged a special defence of incrimination naming Toni McLachlan, the 18-year-old girlfriend of Alesha’s father Robert MacPhail, as the killer.

Ms McLachlan, who was the last person in the flat to see the child alive, denied having anything to do with the crime.

The court also heard Campbell had fallen out with Alesha’s father in February 2018 over a £10 cannabis debt.

On the night of the murder Campbell had hosted a party at his home and was drunk when he messaged the couple in a bid to source the drug.

But when they failed to respond he walked along the road to their house armed with a kitchen knife.

Campbell abducted Alesha, without waking the four adults in the flat, and then carried her to lonely spot where she was raped and murdered.

During the savage attack the child suffered injuries the pathologist described as “catastrophic”.

The jury took just three hours to find Campbell guilty.

Lord Matthews told the killer he had stolen Alesha’s life by “committing some of the most wicked and evil crimes this court has ever heard of in decades of dealing with depravity”.

He said he had “no idea” why the teenager carried out the murder, and described the evidence in the case as “overwhelming”.

In a witness impact statement, Alesha’s mother Georgina Lochrane said she had suffered nightmares about what happened to her daughter.

In a statement released after the verdict, Ms 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 that he has done to mine.

“Alesha, I love you so much, my wee pal. I will miss you forever.”

Alesha’s father Robert MacPhail said day-to-day life was “almost impossible”.

Prosecutor Iain McSporran QC, told the court the loss of a child would be hard to bear in any circumstance, but the “bestial manner” in which Alesha was murdered was “simply unfathomable”.

The senior investigating officer on the case, Det Supt Stuart Houston, said the “senseless and barbaric” murder had shocked people across Scotland.

“The effects of her death are still being felt today,” he said.

bbc