Prosecutor says claims of Alesha accused are ‘preposterous’
A TEENAGER’S claim that six-yearold Alesha Macphail was murdered by her father’s girlfriend Toni Mclachlan has been dismissed as “preposterous”.
Iain Mcsporran, QC, the advocate depute, said the teenager accused of abducting, raping and murdering Alesha told a “pack of lies” and faced a “mountain of evidence” against him.
The teenager has lodged a special defence claiming it was Ms Mclachlan who killed Alesha and planted his DNA from a used condom. She denies this, saying she “loved” Alesha and also denies she had sex with the accused on July 2.
Mr Mcsporran said the defence by the 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a “preposterous story”, that DNA matching the accused was “pretty well all over” Alesha’s body and clothes and that it was the teenager who “brutalised” the six-year-old, inflicting 117 injuries.
“He spun a yarn, a pack of lies. He has also told a pack of lies in the witness box,” said Mr Mcsporran.
The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had also claimed Ms Mclachlan may have been “fantasising” about harming Alesha.
The advocate depute said no-one else had come up with that suggestion. He added: “He introduced that into evidence. It was his comment, his word.”
Mr Mcsporran asked the jury: “What’s the evidence of Toni Mclachlan’s involvement other than the accused’s theory? Not one single piece.”
Earlier, one witness claimed Ms Mclachlan felt jealous and threatened by Alesha.
But the High Court in Glasgow also heard Ms Mclachlan, 18, was said to love Alesha and had been really good to her.
The teenager denies killing Alesha after she went to stay with her father Robert Macphail and grandparents on Bute last July.
A TEENAGER accused of abducting, raping and murdering six-year-old Alesha Macphail told a “pack of lies” and faces a “mountain of evidence” against him, jurors have heard.
The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial accused of killing Alesha after she went to stay with her father and grandparents on the Isle of Bute last July.
In his closing speech at Glasgow’s High Court, advocate depute Iain Mcsporran QC said the accused had lied from the witness box and the only “true” verdict would be to find the boy guilty.
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 Alesha having “never met her in his life”.
The accused denies abducting, raping and murdering Alesha. A charge he faced of attempting to hide evidence was dropped by the Crown.
The schoolgirl from Airdrie 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.
The six-year-old was last seen by her family at about 11pm on 1 July. Her grandmother, Angela King, reported her missing at 6.23am the next day and appealed for help on Facebook to search the island. A member of the public found Alesha’s body about half a mile away at about 9am.
Addressing the jury in his closing speech on the eighth day of the trial, Mr Mcsporran 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.
Mr Mcsporran said the accused 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.
The teenager has lodged in a special defence, claiming that it was Ms Mclachlan who killed Alesha and planted his DNA from a used condom. She denies this saying she “loved” Alesha and refutes that she had sex with the accused on July 2.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, he told the court he and Ms Mclachlan had met up and had sex early on July 2 but he did not want to tell police this as he feared it would get back to Mr Macphail and he would “hurt” Ms Mclachlan.
Mr Mcsporran put it to the jury that they had heard no evidence implicating Ms Mclachlan in the crime but a “mountain of evidence” linking the accused to it including DNA matching the accused’s which was “pretty well all over” Alesha’s body and clothes
He said the accused’s claim that Ms Mclachlan took the condom to plant on Alesha after she killed her was “a preposterous story”.
Describing the accused’s first contact with the police, Mr Mcsporran said: “Down comes a confident young man, and spins them a yarn.”
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.”
He highlighted that no DNA from the accused was found in the house where Alesha had been staying and none of the schoolgirl’s DNA or blood was found in the teenager’s home.
He suggested that, if guilty, the boy had gone into the Macphail family home at night, where there were four adults.
“He then chances upon the room where Alesha is and opens a squeaky door to gain entry, goes in and, whatever condition Alesha is in, he picks her up and took her out. A girl, according to Toni Mclachlan, who would scream if a stranger came into the room.”
The case continues.
There is a mountain of evidence linking the accused to the killing