Unmasked: How Mail challenged the law
THE unmasking of Alesha MacPhail’s killer was a historic legal first in Scotland.
Aaron Campbell, 16, initially could not be identified because of strict laws designed to protect child victims and offenders.
But the day after the guilty verdict was delivered, judge Lord Matthews ruled that he could be named, following a plea from media outlets led by the Scottish Daily Mail.
Under Scots law, under-18s have statutory anonymity under Section 7 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. But a judge can lift this ban if it is deemed to be in the public interest. Campbell’s defence team had tried to thwart attempts to show the face of the privileged rapist and murderer by claiming he had received death threats and that there was ‘a price on his head’.
But the judge disagreed and last month removed the reporting restriction on naming and sharing pictures of the youth.
Lord Matthews said he could not think of a similar case in recent years that had ‘attracted such revulsion’. Yesterday, he allowed his sentencing of Campbell to be broadcast online – a first from a Scots courtroom.
Cameras filmed the judge as he branded Campbell a cold and calculated individual who had shown ‘not a flicker of remorse’.
Lord Matthews removed Campbell’s anonymity after a petition from Anthony Graham, QC, on behalf of Scots media organisations.
Mr Graham told the court Campbell’s special defence had meant that an innocent teenager, Toni-Louise McLachlan, 18, had been accused as the killer, with her name and picture circulated widely in the media. He
argued that Campbell’s claims of a sexual relationship with her had ‘introduced to the trial adult themes’, adding: ‘It’s naive to think he remains anonymous on Bute.’
The Mail’s media lawyer, Campbell Deane, said the lifting of the ban on identification was a historic legal victory.
He added: ‘This is not a case which will open the floodgates when it comes to identifying children under 18 involved in criminal cases. Rather, it needs to be looked at as being an entirely individual set of circumstances based around a heinous crime.’