Father of six-year-old girl who was raped and murdered sold cannabis to her alleged killer
A FATHER has admitted selling cannabis to the teenager who allegedly raped and murdered his six-year-old daughter.
A 16-year-old boy is on trial charged with taking Alesha MacPhail from her bed then killing her on the Scottish Isle of Bute in July last year.
Yesterday her father Robert MacPhail, 26, told Glasgow’s High Court that he used to sell cannabis to the schoolboy, who messaged him asking for drugs on the night she was killed.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly armed with a knife when he abducted Alesha from her grandparents’ flat on July 2.
Her naked body was found dumped in woodland near an abandoned hotel at around 9am, only hours after she was reported missing.
Members of her family left the courtroom yesterday before images of her body lying face down in the woods were shown to the jury.
Giving evidence, Alesha’s father revealed he had sold cannabis to the 16- year-old until the boy’s mother asked him to stop. The alleged murderer would send Facebook messages asking for drugs before Mr MacPhail handed them over at a bus shelter across the road from the home he shared with his parents, the court heard.
At around 1.39am on the day Alesha died, the alleged murderer sent a series of Facebook messages to Mr MacPhail asking for cannabis. Mr MacPhail said: ‘He sent messages from his Facebook account and he tried to call me. There were messages from him and his sister’s accounts that night.’
Iain McSporran, prosecuting, asked: ‘Why would he contact you?’ Mr MacPhail replied: ‘He wanted cannabis.’
Other Facebook messages between Mr MacPhail and the boy indicated the pair had fallen out in February last year over a £10 drug debt.
Mr MacPhail said it never crossed his mind that his drug dealing had any connection to Alesha’s abduction.
Earlier Mr MacPhail, who split from Alesha’s mother Georgina Lochrane when Alesha was three months old, said his daughter had been enjoying a summer holiday on Bute when she was killed. He
‘Handed over drugs at a bus shelter’
was in bed with his partner, Toni McLachlan, on the morning of July 2 when Alesha’s grandparents came in to say she was missing, and all four began searching around the home in Rothesay.
Mr MacPhail said he had put her to bed with a Peppa Pig DVD at around 10.30pm. ‘I told her I would see her in the morning and that was the last time I saw her,’ he said. He saw his daughter every other weekend and during the holidays, and said she ‘loved’ spending time at the beach and park on the island, 40 miles west of Glasgow. The schoolboy defendant denies rape and murder and blames Mr MacPhail’s girlfriend for the crimes. His legal team have lodged a ‘special defence of incrimination’ under Scottish law, stating the rape and murder was committed by Miss McLachlan.
Mr MacPhail told the court yesterday that Alesha and Miss McLachlan both ‘loved each other to bits’.
The jury heard that a knife and a pair of men’s boxer shorts were among items found near to Alesha’s body.
Prosecutors say the teenager took her from her bed then carried her to the grounds of a former hotel, where he attacked her.
Jurors were told Alesha was reported missing by her grandmother Angela King at 6.23am on July 2. Her body was found by a member of the public at 8.54am.
The teenager is also accused of attempting to ‘destroy or conceal evidence’ by disposing of the clothes he had worn and taking a shower.
The trial continues.