Police arrest teenage boy over murder of girl, 6, on Scottish isle
A TEENAGE boy was arrested last night on suspicion of murdering six- year- old Alesha MacPhail. Police confirmed the suspect was under the age of 18.
It is not known if his arrest took place on the Scottish island of Bute, where Alesha’s body was found, or on the mainland.
The arrest came after Alesha’s devastated mother travelled to Bute to visit the flat where her little girl was last seen. Georgina Lochrane, 23, broke into tears as she read the tributes left to her daughter nearby.
She was supported by her boyfriend George Horn as she visited the shrine of flowers and teddies outside the seafront property.
Police launched a murder investigation on Tuesday night after Alesha’s body was found in woodland on Monday – just hours after her grandparents reported she was missing from her bed.
Last night Detective Superintendent Stuart Houston said the arrest was a ‘major development’ but said wanted to hear from anyone who was in the area around the time Alesha went missing as detectives try to piece together her last movements.
It came after police seized two cars, as well as a number of other items, as part of their investigation. Yesterday forensic officers could also be seen searching her grandparents’ flat, its garden and surrounding areas with sticks.
Alesha had been staying with her paternal grandparents Calum MacPhail, 49, and Angela King, 46, and father Robert MacPhail, 25, at the flat near Rothesay when they reported her missing at 6.25am on Monday and appealed for help on Facebook.
She lived in Lanarkshire with her mother, who is estranged from Mr MacPhail, but spent holidays and weekends with her father on Bute.
Her murder has rocked the community, which is home to just 6,500 people. It is the largest investigation ever undertaken by police on the island, which is just 15 miles long and three miles wide. The last murder was eight years ago, when a man with serious mental health problems killed his mother.
Police Scotland had earlier urged people to lock their doors, as well as asking motorists to check their dashcam footage.
They said they were trying to piece together Alesha’s movements from Sunday night until her body was found at 9am on Monday in the grounds of a demolished hotel a 20 minute walk from Miss King and Mr MacPhail’s flat. Reverend Owain Jones said the community was ‘staggered’. ‘Bute is one of these places that is incredibly safe, you take all sorts of things for granted and don’t panic if you forget to lock the house,’ he said. ‘We all know each other at least by sight.’
Gillian Junner, 22, from Rothesay, said she had known Alesha’s father since she was a teenager. ‘He worshipped that girl,’ she said. ‘She was the only thing that brought out a spark in him: a wee smile or a chuckle. He was a fantastic dad.
‘I have a nine-month- old, I didn’t want to put her in nursery yesterday ... I pray the killer is someone that I don’t know but in Bute the odds are that they know her.’ The area where Alesha was found remained closed off last night. A postmortem was carried out on Tuesday but police have not said how she died.
‘I pray I don’t know the killer’