Youth is arrested over murder of Alesha
A youth was last night arrested on suspicion of murdering six-year-old Alesha Macphail, whose body was found on Monday morning. It came as police removed a second car from the house where the girl was staying on the remote Isle of Bute. Yesterday, the focus of the police investigation had been on the house of grandparents Angela King and Calum Macphail. The two cars are believed to have belonged to the child’s father Rob Macphail, 25, and her grandfather.
The playground around the corner from Alesha Macphail’s grandparents’ house on the Isle of Bute would normally be filled with children on a weekday after school. But, despite the heatwave yesterday afternoon, the park was empty.
Last night, Scottish police had announced that they had arrested a male youth on suspicion of six-year-old Alesha’s murder. But as a precaution, they told islanders to “look out for each other and please look out for your families and the security and safety of your homes.”
Angela King, 46, and Calum Macphail, 49, Alesha’s grandparents, live in the Victorian seaside resort of Rothesay, in a house that overlooks the Firth of Clyde and out toward the mainland.
Its front garden was supposed to be a place where Alesha’s laughter would be heard this summer. But instead, the pavement outside was lined with flowers, cuddly toys and messages. In the middle, her school photo sat next to two pink balloons. A message said: “So, so going to miss you.”
Across the road, a pebble beach was roped off by police tape. A seagull bobbed on clear waters as Bob Mason, 73, a local resident, looked at the scene. “It’s paradise, it’s beautiful,” said Mr Mason, who lives around the corner from the house. “There’s very little crime. I don’t lock my door; most people don’t. But everybody’s a bit jumpy now.”
Last night, police had shifted their focus away from the wooded area where Alesha’s body was discovered. A forensics team was seen at the grandparents’ house, where she had been staying along with her father, Rob Macphail, 25, and his girlfriend when she went missing. Among evidence collected from the property were two cars that were removed over the course of the day.
The news shocked the residents of the seaside town, which has long been a holiday destination off the west coast of Scotland.
Cllr Len Scoullar said: “The community is very dismayed and disappointed that such a thing could happen here. We don’t have crime rates that include things like child abuse and murder.”
Alesha had come to Bute for the summer. On Monday morning, at 6:25am, Ms King sent out a plea on Facebook asking friends and neighbours to help her find her granddaughter, who had gone missing in the night.
Two and a half hours later, a neighbour discovered the girl’s body in public woods less than a mile away from the house. Alesha had lived on the mainland in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, with her mother, Georgina Lachrane. The 23-year-old discovered her daughter was missing when she saw the Facebook message.
“Someone tell me what’s happened to my daughter,” Miss Lachrane commented. “Angela answer me now.”
Police later brought Miss Lachrane to the island, where she was seen in tears as she placed a tribute to her daughter.
Winnie Watters, 79, an islander, said: “They’re such a lovely family. The granddad plays bowls and everyone says he’s a great man. I get the bus with the grandma sometimes and she’s lovely too.
“It was that little girl’s highlight, coming to see her grandparents in the holidays. I heard from someone that she’d sleepwalked and maybe got lost or fallen, but I don’t know. You hear a lot of rumours.”
Fewer than 7,000 people live on Bute, home to Mount Stuart House, the stately home where Stella Mccartney, the fashion designer, was married. Prince Charles is the Duke of Rothesay. In the centre of town, near the seafront, three young local girls in summer dresses ate ice creams and kicked a balloon around. The eldest is the same age as Alesha, and was a friend of hers.
The girls’ father, who was sitting on a bench keeping an eye on them and who did not want to be named, said: “It’s terrible. We know the family. It’s hard sleeping at night in case anything happens. I just hope they get who it was. I’ve never seen Rothesay like this, it’s in lockdown.
“I feel so terrible for the family.” Ian Colville, a former oil industry caterer who runs a coffee shop on the seafront and lives near where the schoolgirl was staying, said: “There’s a lot of young kids playing out there all the time but for the last three days there have been none at all.”
Bute has a faded charm as an old seaside resort and remains popular with day-trippers from Glasgow, just 33 miles to the east, who still enjoy trips “doon the water” on the historic Waverley paddle steamer, which still travels along the Clyde.
‘It’s hard sleeping at night in case anything happens. I just hope they get who it was. I’ve never seen Rothesay like this, it’s in lockdown’
The last murder on Bute was 20 years ago, when two convicted paedophiles killed Allison Mcgarrigle, who was planning to report them for abusing a boy, and dumped her body at sea. Ms Mcgarrigle, 39, disappeared in 1997 and her body was never recovered. She was declared dead in 2005.
Mr Scoullar said: “Rothesay has always been the safest place for ladies and children, but that’s been proved wrong. Let’s hope when the police get to the bottom of this it goes back to the way it has always been.”
At Cafe Zavaroni’s on the seafront, owner Margaret Zavaroni, a cousin of Lena Zavaroni, the late former Scottish child singing star, said the town was much quieter than usual.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this happening on the island. You can let your kids play out all night and if any kids went missing they’d be found in five minutes because everyone knows everyone.
“I don’t know if it’s out of respect but I’ve only had two lots of families with kids in today. Normally it would be packed.”