Witness: Father’s girlfriend felt ‘threatened’ by Alesha

A WOMAN who, it was claimed, killed Alesha MacPhail and tried to frame a youth for the crime felt ‘jealous and threatened’ by her, the court heard yesterday.

A friend of Toni McLachlan said she had also heard her make odd comments after the girl’s naked body had been found.

The teenage boy accused of abducting, raping and murdering the six-year-old has lodged a special defence blaming Miss McLachlan, the girlfriend of Alesha’s father Robert MacPhail.

Witness Lynsey Calderwood gave a statement to police around the time of Alesha’s death.

Yesterday, she told the jury she was ‘good friends’ with Miss McLachlan when Alesha went missing.

Under questioning by defence QC Brian McConnachie, Miss Calderwood, 20, said: ‘They were happy, they got on really well. Toni was really good to her and they both liked each other.’

But Mr McConnachie read from a statement she gave to police on July , three days after Alesha’s body was found. She had said then: ‘I always felt Toni was jealous and she felt threatened of the time and attention Rab gave to Alesha.’

Miss Calderwood told the court Miss McLachlan was a ‘wee bit jealous’ but not ‘really jealous’ of Alesha.

She also said the day after Alesha went missing, Miss McLachlan said ‘something along the lines of “she’s in a better place”,’ which she thought odd.

Miss Calderwood said she went looking for Alesha after Miss McLachlan phoned on the morning she went missing.

When questioned over comments she had made during the search, Miss Calderwood said: ‘She said she had a bad feeling about [the accused].’

Asked if she knew the accused, she said: ‘I knew of him but I didn’t know him to speak to.’

Miss Calderwood said she ‘didn’t know a lot about the relationship’ between Mr MacPhail and Miss McLachlan, but added: ‘They argued quite a lot.’