How do police find DNA?
Internet search was made on accused’s iPhone less than 24 hours after Alesha’s murder, expert tells court
‘Phone user has gone to one of the hits’
AN INTERNET search for ‘how do police find DNA’ was made on the phone of a teenager accused of abducting, raping and murdering a sixyear-old girl, a court heard yesterday.
The online query came only an hour before the 16-year-old was quizzed by detectives in connection with the discovery of Alesha MacPhail’s naked body.
Peter Benson, cyber-crime team leader with Police Scotland, told the High Court in Glasgow he had helped to compile a report after a forensic investigation of the teen’s iPhone.
Alesha was reported missing from her grandparents’ home on the Isle of Bute at 6.23am on July 2 last year.
Her naked body was found by a member of the public at 8.54am on the site of the former Kyles Hydropathic Hotel on the island.
On the sixth day of the murder trial yesterday, the court was told the internet history of the boy’s phone included a Google search for the term ‘how do police find DNA’ at 12.32am on July 3.
An hour after this query was made, the teenager gave a statement to police from his home on Bute. Mr Benson described the online search as ‘something you type in’ to the search bar of a browser page.
The iPhone’s internet history included, around three seconds after the search, a page on collecting DNA evidence. Mr Benson said this indicates that ‘the person using the phone has gone to one of the hits’, meaning the search results.
The 55-year-old cyber-crime expert was also asked about communication via social media site Instagram between the accused – who cannot be named for legal reasons – and Toni McLachlan, the girlfriend of Alesha’s father, Robert MacPhail.
Alesha’s mother Georgina Lochrane – who was in court yesterday – is estranged from Mr MacPhail.
The boy has lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming Miss McLachlan for the murder and claiming she framed him.
When asked by prosecutor Iain McSporran, QC, about Instagram, Mr Benson said there was no evidence the accused and Miss McLachlan had communicated via the site.
He said: ‘There was no indication of that at all. That did not feature in any of the evidence recovered from Toni Louise McLachlan’s phone.’
Asked if they had been connected on Instagram, Mr Benson replied: ‘I didn’t see any evidence in the contacts list.’ But under cross- examination by defence lawyer Brian McConnachie, QC, Mr Benson said he could not access messages that were not stored on the phone, or messages that had been deleted.
Mr Benson accepted it may be possible to delete messages on Instagram, adding it appeared the boy was not a ‘heavy user’ of the site.
Last week, Miss McLachlan denied claims she and the boy had been in contact on Instagram in the early hours of July 2.
Yesterday, a police forensics expert told the court that fibres found on Alesha’s vest suggested there had been ‘direct physical contact’ with jogging bottoms found on a beach near where her body was found.
Sarah Jones, a forensic scientist with the Scottish Police Authority, and her team examined clothing found on the shoreline on Bute and the garments Alesha had been wearing the night she was killed.
A white vest, pink shorts and pink pants worn by the six-year-old were ‘tape-tested’ for fibres.
Miss Jones told the court: ‘We consider the black polyester and black viscose fibres found on Alesha MacPhail’s vest came from the jogging bottoms.’
Miss Jones said 69 black and grey fibres from jogging trousers and boxer shorts recovered from the shoreline were ‘indistinguishable’ from those found on Alesha’s vest, shorts and pants.
She added that this was ‘strong evidence’ the black and grey fibres were from the recovered clothes.
Miss Jones said the fibres suggested ‘direct physical contact’ and the number of fibres found were ‘extremely indicative of direct physical contact’ between the jogging trousers and Alesha’s clothes.
She added that she could not exclude the possibility the fibres were passed from a third party, though this would have had to have taken place within three hours of initial
transfer. She said no fibres from a black Nike hoodie, found on the shoreline on July 6, matched fibres found on Alesha’s clothes.
Asked whether she would have expected transfer from a person wearing the top to someone in direct contact with it, such as a child being carried, Miss Jones replied: ‘Yes, I would.’
She added: ‘The absence of a transfer would point to me that the vest had not been in contact with that hooded top.’
Earlier, the jury heard that officers searched the house the accused shared with his mother and retrieved a knife block that had five slots for kitchen knives.
Detective Constable Graham McIlwraith said he recovered only four knives, adding: ‘It seemed reasonable that a knife might be missing and that could be important.’ He was shown the four recovered knives and an image of a knife recovered from the shore, and acknowledged all five looked similar.
The court also heard from Karen MacBride, a Scottish Police Authority fingerprint examiner, who told the court the accused’s prints had been found in the stairwell leading to the MacPhail property – but it was not possible to date them.
She took fingerprints from a stairway chairlift, where prints from the accused’s right palm were discovered on July 11.
Asked when they were there from, she said: ‘It’s not possible to age a fingerprint.’ Under cross-examination by Mr McConnachie, she confirmed it was ‘not possible to determine how long the print was there’.
No prints belonging to the accused were found inside the MacPhail home.
The trial also heard yesterday that the 16-year-old was held by police at his home on July 4 last year, at around 5pm.
He was then taken to Helen Street police station in Glasgow for questioning.
DC Ian Wilson was one of the officers at the interview.
Mr McSporran asked him: ‘Did he make a response of “no comment” to questions and assertions?’ DC Wilson replied: ‘Yes.’
Mr McSporran asked: ‘Literally saying the words “no comment”?’ DC Wilson said this was correct.
The trial, before Judge Lord Matthews, continues.
‘Not possible to age a fingerprint’