Alesha accused searched for DNA procedure

COURT: Trial hears teenager researched information on how police find evidence

A phone belonging to a teenager accused of the abduction, rape and murder of a six-year-old girl was used to Google “how do police find DNA”.

Cyber crime team leader Peter Benson told the Alesha MacPhail murder trial he helped compile a report of relevant information following a forensic investigation of the 16-year-old boy’s phone.

The device’s internet history included a Google search for the term “how do police find DNA” at 12.32am on July 3, the day after Alesha’s body was found in woods on the Isle of Bute.

Mr Benson said this “something you type in”.

A minute later the internet history shows a page on collecting DNA evidence, which Mr Benson said indicates “the person using the phone has gone to one of the hits”.

The former policeman was also questioned about any communication on Instagram between the accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and the person who the teenager blames for Alesha’s death.

The 16-year-old has lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming Toni McLachlan – the girlfriend of Alesha’s father Robert MacPhail – for the killing.

Advocate Depute Iain McSporran QC asked Mr Benson if there was Instagram would be communication between and Ms McLachlan.

He replied: “I can say indication of that at all.”

Giving evidence earlier in the trial, Ms McLachlan refuted suggestions from the accused’s defence lawyer, Brian McConnachie QC, that she and the teenager had been in contact on Instagram in the early hours of July 2.

Mr McConnachie suggested they had messaged on Instagram, then met and had sex in a shed, before Ms McLachlan took Alesha from her room, “attacked and brutalised her” and “planted” the accused’s semen from the condom used earlier, then murdered her, all of which Ms McLachlan denied. On Wednesday last week, Ms McLachlan told jurors she “loved” Alesha and had nothing to do with her death.

Detective Constable Graham McIlwraith also gave evidence and said he searched the accused’s home and noticed one knife missing from a block of five. Shown a photograph of a knife found on the shore opposite where Alesha had been staying, he said it “would appear to be the same design” as the Jamie Oliver brand knives found in the accused’s house.

The teenager denies abducting, raping and murdering Alesha, and attempting to hide evidence.

The trial, before judge Matthews, continues. the accused there was no Lord

Alesha MacPhail’s father Robert MacPhail and his girlfriend Toni McLachlan arrive at the High Court in Glasgow.