Alesha MacPhail: Boy accused of killing girl, 6, ‘never met her’ – as his semen ‘found on her body’

The boy accused of killing six-year-old Alesha MacPhail said he never met her – as a court was told traces of his DNA were found on the little girl.

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Forensic scientist Stuart Bailey told the High Court in Glasgow that semen from the 16-year-old boy was found inside Alesha, who went missing from her grandparents house on the Isle of Bute early on 2 July last year before her body was found hours later in a wooded area.

He said traces of DNA were found on the six-year-old’s neck, shorts, vest, and her private parts.

Mr Bailey said it was more than 1bn times more likely to be from the accused teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, than from someone not related to him.

The accused, who denies all charges, previously claimed the DNA evidence was planted from a condom.

Asked about the attack, the accused said: “I’ve never met Alesha MacPhail in person.

“I didn’t even know her name until everything that happened.”

He has lodged a special defence blaming Toni McLachlan, the girlfriend of Alesha’s father.

Ms McLachlan has denied any involvement.

Giving evidence at the court, Mr Bailey said the DNA could have been found on Alesha because the 16-year-old came into contact with those areas of her body and her clothes.

It was also found on her thighs, wrists, ankles, underarms, and areas where she was bruised.

Mr Bailey said one explanation for the DNA on Alesha was intercourse, but accepted that the defence’s suggestion the semen was “planted” is scientifically possible.

He said it was “highly unlikely” that the DNA could have been found on her through a secondary transfer from a third party “given the amount of DNA attributed” to the teenager.

Giving evidence, the accused claimed that Alesha’s father Robert MacPhail, had been abusing his girlfriend Ms McLachlan.

The teenager told the court he and Ms McLachlan had been “friends with benefits” since October 2017, meeting up to have sex, and “smoke joints”.

He said Mr MacPhail did not know about the relationship, but that it lasted through most of the winter before the teenager got back together with an ex-girlfriend.

The 16-year-old told the court that the boxer shorts and joggers that had been shown to the jury were lost when he jumped into the water from a pier by himself a few days before Alesha was killed.

He said he had been in the water on 29 June adding: “Once I’d finished drying myself I went to pick my trousers up but I wasn’t fast enough and they just went into the sea.”

The court previously heard that the clothes had been found washed on the shoreline by a dog walker.

Recalling the events around the days of Alesha’s death, the accused told the court he had a party at his home on 1 July, with 15 of his friends. Some of them were drinking.

He said: “I had a bottle of Mad Dog and most of a bottle of Echo Falls, which I shared with one of my friends.

“I got drunk. I was not sick, I was just having a good time.”

He said he knew Mr MacPhail because he had bought cannabis from them.

On 2 July, the day Alesha was found dead, he and Ms McLachlan had messaged on Instagram, as he asked her for cannabis.

She said she had none but asked if he wanted to meet for a cigarette.

The teenager said he had met Ms McLachlan in a shelter outside the home where she was staying, the same place where Mr MacPhail, his parents and Alesha were.

He claimed they went to a garage and had sex, and then went their separate ways. He claimed this was where he was going when the CCTV showed him leaving his home.

He said he lied to his mother and the police about what he was doing on 2 July because of concern for Ms McLachlan.

He said he didn’t want Mr MacPhail to find out about them having sex, adding: “I didn’t want her to get hurt. I didn’t want her to get hit by Rab.”

The accused denies abducting, raping and murdering the six-year-old and attempting to hide evidence on the Isle of Bute in July last year.

Alesha had been staying at the home her father shared with her grandparents on the Isle of Bute when she was reported missing just after 6am on 2 July.

Her body was found hours later in a wooded area.

The trial continues.

(c) Sky News 2019: Alesha MacPhail: Boy accused of killing girl, 6, ‘never met her’ – as his semen ‘found on her body’