Boy’s cruelty as he made family hear harrowing details
DESPITE the overwhelming evidence against Alesha’s killer, the boy who abducted, raped and murdered her refused to accept his guilt.
Devastating DNA test results which directly linked him to the crime, combined with compelling CCTV images, made the case rock solid.
But nothing would persuade the youth, dubbed “arrogant and cocksure” by those close to the case, to admit the terrible deed.
In doing so he forced Alesha’s family and friends to listen to appalling and harrowing details of her final minutes.
Some believe the reason was simple: a desire to be in the glare of the media’s spotlight. A source close to the case said: “It was his 15 minutes of fame, if you like.
“You live on the Isle of Bute where nothing happens. Then, all of a sudden, you find yourself in the maelstrom of a major trial.
“Some people may freeze at the thought but others – and maybe it was the case here – revel in it.”
Throughout the nine-day trial the killer often eyeballed witnesses from his seat in the dock as they testified against him.
Once, he was even seen smirking as he was led out at the end of another day’s grim evidence. And it can now be reported that the youth repeatedly complained of a sore back from sitting during the trial.
And another equally glaring question remains unanswered: why would a teenager snatch a child from her bed, rape her and murder her, inflicting injuries a senior pathologist described to the court as “the worst I have ever seen”.
The teenager’s defence lawyer, Brian McConnachie QC, urged the jury to acquit his client, questioning why he would abduct, rape and murder Alesha having “never met her in his life”.
Some have speculated that his intended target was Alesha’s father. The boy had bought cannabis from Robert MacPhail. The two had fallen out. Was he after drugs or a victim?
It is known that at 1.54am on Monday, July 2, the boy walked out of the family home and headed to the MacPhail’s house while drunk and armed with a kitchen knife.
Being an almost crime-free island, he was able to let himself in. It was not hard for him to find the room where Alesha was sleeping.
He then carried the little girl out of the flat without the family knowing.
Whether the child was asleep, threatened or simply frozen by fear, only the killer knows.