The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Alesha accused told a ‘pack of lies’, jury hears
‘Mountain of evidence’ against 16-year-old who blames woman for crime
There is a “mountain” of evidence against a teenager accused of abducting, raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, a jury has been told.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC said the 16-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had told a “pack of lies” from the witness box at the High Court in Glasgow.
But the teenager’s defence lawyer, Brian McConnachie QC, urged the jury to acquit his client, questioning why the boy would abduct, rape and murder six-year-old Alesha MacPhail having “never met her in his life”.
The schoolgirl had arrived at the home her grandparents shared with her father, Robert or Rab MacPhail, on the Isle of Bute for the school holidays shortly before she went missing on July 2 last year.
Her body was found in woods on the island hours later.
Addressing the jury in his closing speech on the eighth day of the trial, Mr McSporran invited them to convict the 16-year-old, saying the only “true” verdict would be to find him guilty.
He said the evidence “points squarely” to her being abducted and taken to where she was found by the person who killed her, which he claimed was the accused.
The teenager has said he lied to police about his actions when Alesha went missing, claiming he did so to protect the woman he blames for the killing – Toni McLachlan, the partner of Alesha’s father.
He has lodged a special defence of incrimination blaming Ms McLachlan, 18, for the crime.
Mr McSporran added that DNA matching the accused was “pretty well all over” Alesha’s body and clothes and said the Crown’s case is his semen was found inside the six-year-old as he had raped her.
Mr McConnachie told the jury in his closing speech that Ms McLachlan’s friend agreed in her evidence earlier yesterday that she was “jealous” of Alesha and felt “threatened” by the time and attention Mr MacPhail paid his daughter.
Addressing jurors, the lawyer said: “You might think that there is a solid basis on the evidence that Toni McLachlan might wish harm on Alesha MacPhail.”
The accused denies abducting, raping and murdering Alesha.
Previously, Ms McLachlan denied being responsible for Alesha’s death, saying she “loved” the schoolgirl.
She also denied suggestions by the defence that she had sex with the accused on July 2, then planted his semen on Alesha, before murdering her.
The case continues.