UK - Alesha MacPhail, 6, raped & murdered, Ardbeg, Isle of Bute, Scotland, 2 Jul 2018 -*arrest* #2

[Legally Bland]

The body of a young girl has been found on the Isle of Bute.

Police said a female child's body was discovered in woods at about 09:00 on Monday.

Police were alerted that a six-year-old girl was missing from her home in Rothesay at 06:25 on Monday.

The body was discovered in the grounds of a former hotel on Ardbeg Road. A spokeswoman for Police Scotland confirmed that an inquiry had been launched.

Body of young girl found on Isle of Bute

The former hotel concerned is believed to be the Kyles Hydro in Port Bannatyne, two miles north of Rothesay. An area of woodland is understood to have been cordoned off by police.

Police searching for missing six-year-old girl on Bute find child's body | HeraldScotland

Thread #1

 

[Tortoise]

A body has been found in the search for a six-year-old girl on a Scottish island.

The child from Rothesay, Isle of Bute, was reported missing at 6.25am today. At about 9am, officers found the body of a young girl on the site of a former hotel.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: 'At around 6.25am this morning, police were informed a six-year-old girl was missing in Rothesay.

Police find the body of missing Rothesay girl at an abandoned hotel | Daily Mail Online

 

[Tortoise]

The former hotel concerned is believed to be the Kyles Hydro in Port Bannatyne, two miles north of Rothesay. An area of woodland is understood to have been cordoned off by police.

Body found in hunt for missing six-year-old on Bute

 

[Tortoise]

The body was found in woodlands near Ardbeg Road

Body of girl, 6, found in Rothesay woods after cops launched search for missing kid

 

[Tortoise]

Houses have been sealed off in Ardbeg

Body of young girl found on Isle of Bute

 

[Amonet]

Jamie Murray MSYP
@JamieMurrayMSYP
Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Argyll & Bute

Jamie Murray MSYP on Twitter

There are pictures of Alesha in that tweet which were put up when she was missing.

RIP Alesha

 

[Tortoise]

She's named here as Alesha MacPhail. I've asked for the thread title to be amended.

:Cops were called to reports of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail going missing at around 6.30am this morning in Rothesay.

It is understood she was staying with her dad Rab MacPhail and grandparents Calum MacPhail and Angela King on the island.

Gran Angela had originally used social media to help spread the word to find the youngster.

Tributes paid to tragic schoolgirl found dead in Rothesay woods as cops launch probe

 

[Harmony 2]

Please continue here...

 

[Yenriac]

Hi. Newbie here!!

I've been catching up on the thread since last night. I've also been reading the social media updates.

Firstly my heart goes out to the family of this innocent little girl, i cannot imagine the devastation they have experienced and still experiencing with the detail that is being reported.

The whole thing leaves me conflicted. I hope justice is served correctly but as a mother of 3 children (one of them 16 and one 6 ) part of me wants to believe the accused hasn't carried out this crime. I'm not saying for a second he never did it, so far it looks like he did, the evidence is telling us that. I just can't imagine the thought process of anyone be it adult or teenager carrying out such a horrendous and violent assault on a 6 year old. I suppose it's because I'm only human. I can't help but feel a bit sorry for the family of the accused.

In regard to the accused's demeanour in court, i think he has been advised by his defence team to not show any emotion or reaction to the witnesses or evidence.

To say I'm looking forward to what next week at the trial will bring is wrong but i'm interested to see how it pans out in regard to, the blaming of someone else, has he been positively identified on the CCTV that wasn't provided by his mum? Can the link with TM be proven? Was there any DNA on the knife and was there any DNA belonging to anyone else on Alesha or the evidence?

The trial so far has thrown up so many questions that still remain to be answered but on the whole it's a shocking case and very upsetting.

 

[Taskforce88]

It was told that the boy sent a Snapchat video of himself to pals with the message “found the guy who’s done it”.

He claims he pointed at himself as he said: “I found where the murderer was hiding”.

The witness thought it was a “joke” because the accused “had a dark sense of humour”, the court hears.

When asked if the witness still thinks this video was an example of the accused’s “dark humour”, the boy replies “I’m not sure”.

Alesha MacPhail suspect was 'crying and depressed' on night of 'murder'

A friend of the accused, who is also 16 and cannot be named because of his age, is giving evidence at the High Court.

He says he attended the exams party and went back to the accused’s house at 12.30am.

He found the accused “crying on his bed,” he tells the court.

The boy says the accused told him he had ‘family problems” and was “depressed and thinking of harming himself”.

The witness tells the court the accused was “wearing grey jogging bottoms and a black Nike zipper”.

 

[neteditor]

Hi Sleuthers, just booking my place on new thread.

 

[Alyce]

Updated timeline

12 midnight or just after : grandmother hears Alesha call out for Peppa Pig

Early hours of morning : Alesha in living room of house - put to bed by RM with dvd

Unspecified time - but has to be later than RM putting Alesha to bed -
TM goes to bathroom, then goes to Alesha room, switches off dvd, closes bedroom door fully

12.22 am : Suspect and mother have argument at suspect's home

12.30 am : Suspect's friends leave his house, suspect's 14 yr old sister accompanies them

01.39 am Suspect texts or Facebook call to RM

01.47 am Suspect / or his sister / or suspect using sisters Facebook account - calls TM

01.54 am Suspect leaves his home, wearing jog pants, trainers , hoodie. Walks in direction of Rothesay which means he would go past the McPhail home

02.26 am cctv ( Mr McLachlan home ) spots figure coming out of the shelter and walong along the shore line - with something on their back. When later asked, Mr McL says he presumed it was somebody carrying a child.

02.27 am - cctv footage from home of Shari Strathie, who lives 2 doors down from Mr McLachlan.Footage shows movement along the shoreline. She says to her, it looks like a figure walking past her house carrying another person.“You can see the legs hanging down and moving” she says.

03.35 am Suspect returns to his home - from a different direction - accesses his house by jumping over back wall. Does not have hoodie with him.

03.35 to 03.44 am. suspect mother hears boiler switching on.

03.44 am bathroom light is switched on.

03.45 am suspect leaves his home, wearing only shorts , no shoes, carrying what appears to be a black tee shirt

03.52 am suspect returns home

03.58 am suspect leaves home, fully clothed, running, with a torch

04.07 am suspect returns home, now walking

 

[wtiger]

Just checking that my satnav has sent me to the right place

 

[DanceCard]

Welcome to WS, Yenriac!

 

[charlotte123456]

Updated timeline

12 midnight or just after : grandmother hears Alesha call out for Peppa Pig

Early hours of morning : Alesha in living room of house - put to bed by RM with dvd

Unspecified time - but has to be later than RM putting Alesha to bed -
TM goes to bathroom, then goes to Alesha room, switches off dvd, closes bedroom door fully

12.22 am : Suspect and mother have argument at suspect's home

12.30 am : Suspect's friends leave his house, suspect's 14 yr old sister accompanies them

01.39 am Suspect texts or Facebook call to RM

01.47 am Suspect / or his sister / or suspect using sisters Facebook account - calls TM

01.54 am Suspect leaves his home, wearing jog pants, trainers , hoodie. Walks in direction of Rothesay which means he would go past the McPhail home

02.26 am cctv ( Mr McLachlan home ) spots figure coming out of the shelter and walong along the shore line - with something on their back. When later asked, Mr McL says he presumed it was somebody carrying a child.

02.27 am - cctv footage from home of Shari Strathie, who lives 2 doors down from Mr McLachlan.Footage shows movement along the shoreline. She says to her, it looks like a figure walking past her house carrying another person.“You can see the legs hanging down and moving” she says.

03.35 am Suspect returns to his home - from a different direction - accesses his house by jumping over back wall. Does not have hoodie with him.

03.35 to 03.44 am. suspect mother hears boiler switching on.

03.44 am bathroom light is switched on.

03.45 am suspect leaves his home, wearing only shorts , no shoes, carrying what appears to be a black tee shirt

03.52 am suspect returns home

03.58 am suspect leaves home, fully clothed, running, with a torch

04.07 am suspect returns home, now walking

Really useful updated timeline It seems from this timeline, that the entire abduction and subsequent rape and murder may only have taken place within a relatively short time frame. 1:54am suspect leaves house. 3:35am he returns home after being seen carrying what looks like another person. Just over 1:40 mins in order to commit the abduction, rape and murder (plus travelling times) as it seems to me that the other times he was seen leaving and retuning were too short (hiding evidence/looking for phone/knife). All very odd and disturbing.

 

[Tortoise]

02.26 am cctv ( Mr McLachlan home ) spots figure coming out of the shelter

Just pointing out that he was coming out of the shelter, meaning he had to have been in the shelter, not just caught on cctv walking past the shelter at 2.26 am.

I wonder why police didn't gather the footage from the camera of him entering the shelter to get a better timeline from when he left home. I suppose at that time police weren't expecting this defence of it being someone else, so there was no need for narrowing down the time to exclude the other activities that he's since put forward.

 

[Taskforce88]

Just pointing out that he was coming out of the shelter, meaning he had to have been in the shelter, not just caught on cctv walking past the shelter at 2.26 am.

I wonder why police didn't gather the footage from the camera of him entering the shelter to get a better timeline from when he left home. I suppose at that time police weren't expecting this defence of it being someone else, so there was no need for narrowing down the time to exclude the other activities that he's since put forward.

I would have hoped the police would have covered all bases on this one.

 

[Keeneye]

I’m still undecided by this whole case . When he returns and jumps over the wall at the back it’s defo looks like he’s come from the direction of where poor alesha was found . His actions after defo as stated above look like he was getting rid of evidence and in the process lost his phone, hence the 3rd trip .

How he meet alesha that morning I doubt we’ll ever find out . Maybe she was sleepwalking when he entered the house and he grabbed her ? Or panicked and grabbed her to stop her screaming and perhaps she was semi conscious then . Again panicked he decided to take her possibly thinking the beach / sea but changes his mind .

I’m undecided about the role TM played, if I was in her position would I have phoned a wee silly boy about abit hash when bfs daughters missing ? Definitely not . The other thing is she is really immature , she had a love bite on her neck at court you can see it in some of the pics . Sorry maybe I’m a snob,’but even just covering it.

 

[Edinlass]

I’m still undecided by this whole case . When he returns and jumps over the wall at the back it’s defo looks like he’s come from the direction of where poor alesha was found . His actions after defo as stated above look like he was getting rid of evidence and in the process lost his phone, hence the 3rd trip .

How he meet alesha that morning I doubt we’ll ever find out . Maybe she was sleepwalking when he entered the house and he grabbed her ? Or panicked and grabbed her to stop her screaming and perhaps she was semi conscious then . Again panicked he decided to take her possibly thinking the beach / sea but changes his mind .

I’m undecided about the role TM played, if I was in her position would I have phoned a wee silly boy about abit hash when bfs daughters missing ? Definitely not . The other thing is she is really immature , she had a love bite on her neck at court you can see it in some of the pics . Sorry maybe I’m a snob,’but even just covering it.

Welcome.

I think we have already covered in the prev thread why she most likely called him back in the morning and it was probably to see if he knew anything about Alesha’s disappearance. I know if someone close was missing and I had a missed call from someone I don’t usually hear from I would definitely call them back. It’s also worth pointing out that she had no idea why he had contacted her, she only had a missed FB messenger call from him. I’m not sure how having a love bite makes someone immature. I can’t say I’ve ever had one as they are unattractive marks but anyone at any age could have one IMO.

 

[Keeneye]

Thanks for the welcome , like I said I’m only thinking what I would have done . The lovebite comment I would defo say is a really silly and immature thing to have blazon on your neck when your going to court or anywhere . But then again that’s me .