PROSECUTOR BLASTS MURDER ACCUSED

THE boy accused of killing Alesha MacPhail has told a “pack of lies” during his murder trial, a prosecutor said.

Iain McSporran QC made the comment during his closing speech, telling the jury they had listened to “one of the worst cases” to come before the courts in Scotland.

He added the evidence would provoke “revulsion” – but that jurors should not be swayed by emotion.

But the boy’s lawyer, Brian McConnachie QC, later asked for the accused to be acquitted.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of abducting, raping and murdering Alesha, six, last July 2 on the Isle of Bute.

In a near hour-long speech, McSporran said the court was dealing with an “extraordinarily important matter”.

He added: “The rape and murder of this girl is bound to attract emotion and revulsion but that can play not part in the process.”

The court previously heard Alesha suffered 117 injuries and that she had been “brutalised”.

Her body was found in the grounds of the former Kyles Hydro Hotel on Bute on July 2.

McSporran said: “This must have been one of the worst cases to have come into as a jury to hear.”

He added it had involved “deeply disturbing and distressing” evidence as well as “dreadful” photos.

He said: “Something terrible was done to that girl.”

The accused pinned the blame on Toni McLachlan – the partner of Alesha’s dad Robert MacPhail, who is separated from Alesha’s mum Georgina Lochrane.

It is claimed she effectively “planted” evidence to fit up the teenager.

The boy alleged having sex with Toni on July 2 and that she must have taken a condom he used with her to plant his DNA at the murder scene.

In evidence, he claimed he later told police of going to get cannabis that morning, so no one would know about him and Toni being together. But McSporran said: “He spun a yarn, a pack of lies. He has also told a pack of lies in the witness box.”

The boy had claimed Toni may have been “fantasising” about harming Alesha but the advocate depute said no one else had come up with that suggestion.

McSporran added: “He introduced that into evidence. It was his comment, his word.”

The prosecutor outlined what the accused was alleging Toni did, if she had committed the crime. He said: “‘Right, my jealousy knows no bounds ... Alesha, you come with me.’

“Three stone, four pounds, carry you into a wooded area where I murder you, brutalise you and smother you to death’.”

The jurors were told Toni would have had to be “very clever and very cunning” to commit such an act.

But McSporran claimed the theory put forward by the accused was “preposterous”.

Toni denied in evidence any part in the murder, insisting she “loved” Alesha.

McSporran told jurors the teenager had “more than enough time” to carry out the crime on the day Alesha died.

He concluded by asking jurors to find the boy guilty, adding that there was a “mountain of evidence” against the teenager.

McConnachie, defending, asked for his client to be acquitted. He told jurors: “There will be people sitting out there who would return a verdict of guilty after reading the indictment, just by the nature of the charge, but that would be wrong.”

The QC added it was not a case of the teenager versus Toni. He said: “This is not a whodunnit.”

McConnachie said the boy would have had to go into the MacPhail family home at night, where four adults were, to be able to commit the crime.

He added: “So, he has taken it upon himself to enter the house for whatever purpose.

“He then chances upon the room where Alesha is and opens a squeaky door to gain entry.

“Goes in and, whatever condition Alesha is in, he picks her up and took her out. “A girl, according to Toni McLachlan, who would scream if a stranger came into the room.”

The QC accused the prosecution of “trying too hard to make something out of nothing”.

Jurors again heard of the video the boy is said have recorded the day Alesha went missing.

An added message read: “Found who’s done it.”

But, the QC said: “This was a video only of interest to anyone at all after he was arrested.”

The trial before Lord Matthews was adjourned until today, when the jury will consider their verdict.