Alesha MacPhail's murderer revealed as boy, 16, who bought cannabis from victim's father

The teenage boy who raped and murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail on a Scottish island has been named as Aaron Campbell.

Judge Lord Matthews, who presided over his trial, agreed to lift a legal restriction on revealing the 16-year-old's identity following an application by media organisations.

Under Scots law a convicted criminal cannot be identified until they turn 18 but such was the severity of the crime, that the judge has ruled that he could be named and his photograph published.

The ruling came the day after he was found guilty  of Alesha's murder at the High Court in Glasgow, where he attempted to blame 18-year-old Toni McLachlan, the girlfriend of Alesha’s father Robert MacPhail, for the murder.

Campbell took the schoolgirl from her bedroom, carried her along the shore in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute and left her "brutalised" body in woodland at the site of a derelict hotel.

The teen killer, who is from Ardbeg near Rothesay, faces a mandatory life sentence on March 21.

Lord Matthews allowed the media to name him and publish his picture despite Campbell's lawyer warning there was a "price" on his client's head.

The judge said: "Parliament has provided the court with a discretion to dispense with the prohibition."

He said: "I can't think of a case in recent times that has attracted such revulsion. I intend to grant the application. The press may name the accused and publish images of him."

Tony Graham QC, the lawyer representing several news organisations, told Lord Matthews at the High Court in Glasgow that it would be "naive" to think the teenager's identity is not already known among members of the Bute community and at Polmont Young Offenders Institute.

He said the name of the boy, convicted on Thursday of the six-year-old's rape and murder, had been on Facebook, Twitter and available via a Google search since last July.

A "substantial majority" of Scotland's printed press and broadcast media are represented in the application, the lawyer said.

He asked the judge to allow the publication of the boy's name, address, school, and images of him.

The Crown remained neutral but Brian McConnachie QC, representing the boy, said: "The fact that things may be on social media is not a reason that the court should overrule the prohibition."

He added: "It's little argument to say, well, it's going to happen (his identification) when he's 18 anyway."

Mr McConnachie also said the fact that the boy had incriminated another person was no reason to identify him.

He said: "To make an order on the basis that Toni Louise McLachlan was incriminated would simply be tit for tat and nothing more than that."

Mr McConnachie said the accused had been warned there was a "price on his head" and that publishing his name could exacerbate the situation as it would increase the number of people aware of his identity.

He said: "It is also important to identify at this stage that there is a history, so far as the accused is concerned, of self harm.

"There is a history of anxiety and depression and he had been previously tested for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was awaiting further testing in relation to that matter at the time of his arrest, so as far as he is concerned there are issues with regard to attacks from others and because of his identification other people knowing the situation and the effect this could have on that issue.

"Also there is a potential of self harm."

Prior to the ruling, Campbell's mother told the Scottish Daily Mail: "I wanted him to grow up in a safe place, a peaceful environment and get a good education.

"They said in court that he was depressed but I never saw any signs of depression. He would get down now and again, like other boys his age, but he was doing well.

"He had passed some exams - he was especially good at maths and planned to go to university. He wasn't a violent boy. He was very normal.

"Yes, he smoked cannabis but it's rife among kids on this island. I knew he was buying it from Rab and Toni (Alesha's father and his girlfriend) but what could I do?

"If I went to the police my son would be in trouble. I just hoped it was a phase and he'd grow out of it. Anyway it wasn't every weekend. It was only occasionally."

Alesha's mother Georgina Lochrane, who sat through the trial, issued a statement saying she could not express how devastated she was to have lost her "beautiful, happy, smiley wee girl".

The six-year-old lived with her mother in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, but was on the holiday island in the Clyde to spend three weeks with her father and grandparents.

She had only been there for a matter of days when her grandmother Angela King, 47, discovered she was missing for her room at around 6.30am on July 2.

The family launched a frantic search for her and were joined by dozens of islanders. But her naked "brutalised" body was discovered in the grounds of the old Kyles of Bute Hotel less than three hours later.

The MacPhail family also issued a statement saying they could not believe they would never see their "wee angel" again. They added: "We miss her so much. We hope that the boy who took her from us is jailed for a long time because of what he has done to our family."

The schoolgirl suffered 117 injuries in the violent attack, with a pathologist telling the jury he had never seen anything like the injuries inflicted on her private parts.

Campbell accused of killing her was arrested on July 4. It emerged on the first day of the trial that he knew the family because he had bought cannabis from Alesha’s father.

Ms McLachlan also learned on the same day that he was accusing her of killing the schoolgirl. In what the prosecution described as a "preposterous" defence, he said he had previously been in a sexual relationship with the 18-year-old and claimed he had sex with her the night Alesha went missing. He claimed she then took a condom and "planted" his DNA at the scene of the murder.

Campbell gave evidence in his own defence and was branded a “confident liar” by the prosecution. But the jury was unanimous in rejecting his evidence.

His DNA was found "all over" Alesha and her clothes, which lay near her body, and he had been caught on CCTV leaving his home on three separate occasion in the early hours of July 2.