Child killer: a monster
The murder trial heard that one possible explanation for the killing was Campbell’s dispute with Alesha’s father, Robert MacPhail, over an unpaid drug debt of just £10.
Mr Grainger said: “This may have given him a grudge. But many people have grudges and are full of bitterness. To act on this in the way he did, inflicting 117 injuries on the girl, requires a warped mind, and in my view only cannabis could have damaged it so.
“Abusing and raping children is not unique to cannabis smokers, but when I read of the 117 injuries he inflicted, I knew there must be cannabis behind it – a sustained, frenzied, brutal and psychopathic murder of this kind nearly always does.”
Mr Grainger, from Bristol, has submitted a petition to the Government calling for a review into the links between cannabis and violence which has been signed by more than 12,000 people. He launched his campaign after Becky Watts was murdered by her step-brother Nathan Matthews, a regular cannabis user, almost four years ago.
“Scotland is no stranger to this type of murder,” added Mr Grainger. “There was the Jodi Jones murder, and the Anne Nicoll murder in which young men deranged by heavy cannabis smoking committed murder. As with Alesha MacPhail, both cases are notorious for the savagery involved, and for their seemingly inexplicable nature.”
Drugs expert Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Substance Use Research in Glasgow, said Alesha’s murder was “shocking in every respect except one – the killer had a history of extensive cannabis use”.
He explained: “There is now a long list of murders where the perpetrators have been using cannabis – both on a long-term basis and just prior to their murderous actions. Cannabis served to distance these individuals from the horror of their actions.”