UK - Alesha MacPhail, 6, raped & murdered, Ardbeg, Isle of Bute, Scotland, 2 Jul 2018 -*arrest* #4

[Joolz1975]

I personally think it was his arrogance,he didn't think anyone would suspect him so it didn't matter if he left his DNA,he clearly thought it would never get as far as him being tested,and he is obviously used to getting away with really bad things so he figured this was no different? JMO

I think there is a lot of truth in this.

 

[wtiger]

I believe a mixture of naivety regarding forensic evidence - (thinking about the big things like clothing but not the finer smaller trace evidence)

Influence of drugs/alcohol - unable to appreciate the evidence he was leaving behind (and probably not considering it until he sobered up)

But also the narcissism that shone through in the trial - thought that he would talk his way out of anything that came up, because he sees himself as more intelligent than the rest of us.

As for the daft defence story

1 - given the horrendous nature of the crime, he clearly could not face up so simply had to offer up some sort of story (truth would have been no good to him)

His advocate would basically show him which crown evidence he needed to explain away...so he goes away and fabricates a story to deal with that list of evidence.

Once he went "not guilty" he tied his own hands

I am pretty sure that he must have ignored at least some legal advice because quite honestly if i had paid a lawyer and THAT pile of manure was the best defence he could cobble together...i would want my money back

 

[Cinque]

I would like to know where his father is in all this ... leaving his wife/exwife, to deal with all the press attention, though I know she willing spoke to them. Where is he? Shouldn't he be there for his wife and daughter? Surely he has just not buggered off and left them to it?

 

[Yenriac]

Okay, final unanswered questions before I’m calling it a day with all this:

Did he really not know about DNA? Why did he dispose of all his contaminated clothes but leave so much evidence at the crime scene? Was he relying on no one suspecting him, dna sweeps not including someone so young, his mother never checking the cctv or contacting the police? He took some time to come up with his ridiculous defence. What are people's thoughts on this?

I think he knew about DNA but only that the police never had his so he wouldn't show up on their radar. I think when he was googling it the answer he was looking for was how the police take samples from him. That is why he asked the police if it would hurt.
Ultimately his mum's cctv was his undoing and i really think he was relying on her not looking at it. It was installed due to a family member with dementia and normally would only have been checked if something happened at home. He went to sleep afterwards therefore to his mum, everything was normal at home that morning.
I also believe he thought he was too young (having not long turned 16) to come under police radar. JMO

 

[404_notfound]

Okay, final unanswered questions before I’m calling it a day with all this:

Did he really not know about DNA? Why did he dispose of all his contaminated clothes but leave so much evidence at the crime scene? Was he relying on no one suspecting him, dna sweeps not including someone so young, his mother never checking the cctv or contacting the police? He took some time to come up with his ridiculous defence. What are people's thoughts on this?

I think that he didn't know about DNA, or at least, he thought of it as something that would be in visible fluids or blood. Possibly there was blood on his clothes, a soak in salt water will lift that great and soaking bloodstains in salt water is something he may have seen his mother do. I don't think he realised that DNA can be left behind in invisible traces of skin cells, blood, semen. I think he knew about the CCTV and what it might show because he seems to have deliberately altered his behaviour for its benefit, sauntering while gasping for breath, coming deliberately around from a different direction than the crime scene. From looking at the whole overview, including the rumours of his history, the crime he committed, the things his mum said in the articles (we don't know what she said, because of editing, but for example if she describes him as typical and not violent i doubt she also described him as monstrous and depraved) i get the impression that he's a boy who has been able to talk himself out of a lot. I think in the moments before and after his crime he was trying to do enough that he could make up some excuses, and genuinely thinking he would be believed and nobody would believe it was him.

 

[Joolz1975]

I think he knew about DNA but only that the police never had his so he wouldn't show up on their radar. I think when he was googling it the answer he was looking for was how the police take samples from him. That is why he asked the police if it would hurt.
Ultimately his mum's cctv was his undoing and i really think he was relying on her not looking at it. It was installed due to a family member with dementia and normally would only have been checked if something happened at home. He went to sleep afterwards therefore to his mum, everything was normal at home that morning.
I also believe he thought he was too young (having not long turned 16) to come under police radar. JMO

He was really naive with the CCTV I think.

If a crime of any sort happened near where I live the first thing I'd do is check my cctv. Surely anyone would do the same (not to mention the police would be knocking asking for it).

The Cctv was definatly his downfall in getting caught so early.

Having said that I think they would have got him eventually anyway.

 

[Vevvie]

I see one of the tabloids has also released a picture of his mum today. No one needs to know what she looks like. IMO

That’s awful! She did the right thing and doesn’t need hounding. Poor woman.

 

[wtiger]

I would like to know where his father is in all this ... leaving his wife/exwife, to deal with all the press attention, though I know she willing spoke to them. Where is he? Shouldn't he be there for his wife and daughter? Surely he has just not buggered off and left them to it

Reading between the lines i get the distinct impression that Father and Mother have had a difference of opinion when it came to dealing with their son.
Mother refers to father blaming her and he previously confided in friends about his concerns about his son.
This suggests that if he had complained to his wife, it may have fallen on deaf ears.

But as i said..that is just reading between the lines and may not be accurate

 

[Joolz1975]

Reading between the lines i get the distinct impression that Father and Mother have had a difference of opinion when it came to dealing with their son.
Mother refers to father blaming her and he previously confided in friends about his concerns about his son.
This suggests that if he had complained to his wife, it may have fallen on deaf ears.

But as i said..that is just reading between the lines and may not be accurate

Suppose dad away working , mum feeling the pressure of a troubled teenage boy not to mention a younger teenager in the home it's not always easy!

Then dad comes home, criticises what has been happening and mum gets defensive and possibly starts covering up for some of what has been happening to keep the peace.

Then before you know it you are in a vicious circle, son thinks he has the upper hand as mum hides certain things from dad and you lose all control.

Like you I'm just speculating but having a problem teenager myself a few years ago I was constantly piggy in middle and walking on eggshells to keep the peace.

 

[Yenriac]

Reading between the lines i get the distinct impression that Father and Mother have had a difference of opinion when it came to dealing with their son.
Mother refers to father blaming her and he previously confided in friends about his concerns about his son.
This suggests that if he had complained to his wife, it may have fallen on deaf ears.

But as i said..that is just reading between the lines and may not be accurate

Also reading between the lines, the dad said 'they always blame the dad in these things' It's a small island chances are if there was ever any reprisals or some form of revenge it would most likely be taken out on the father of the convicted person rather than the mother. Taking that into account the dad done the off quickly. Maybe took the sister with him? Again JMO

 

[wtiger]

The issue of which way a struggling parent can turn is one that really needs to be addressed.

With each passing generation we seem to be seeing a reduction in fear of authority or consequences of behaving badly.

When i was a kid, the threat that my mother might call for our local copper to come and see me was more than enough to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!

Now nothing seems to bother teenagers, they have no respect or fear of police or teachers or parents....in fact more of them are bothered about their followers on twitter than they are about any of that stuff.

Parenting is becoming a different job to the one it once was and also in my opinion we need to revisit the whole idea of a 16 year old male being regarded as a child.
In so many ways, todays 16 year old is far more worldly wise than i was at 18.

Times are changing rapidly but the measures and safety nets for parents are still the same ones which to some extent were wholly inadequate in their day 30-40 years ago.

A bigger debate much needed methinks

 

[Mrs Marple]

His username Poison3dappl3 is pretty telling imo. He knows he is rotten to the core.

I wonder about the circumstances in which she was removed from the bed; l find it hard to believe he woke her, threatened her with the knife and she kept quiet. The footage of her on his back suggests he told her they were going on an adventure. I wonder how much contact he had with her prior to that night. Could be have suggested it in advance? Just pondering. She seemed like such an energetic feisty little girl who was clearly well loved. Would she really have not cried out for help? We may never know.

 

[Gardenista]

His username Poison3dappl3 is pretty telling imo. He knows he is rotten to the core.

I wonder about the circumstances in which she was removed from the bed; l find it hard to believe he woke her, threatened her with the knife and she kept quiet. The footage of her on his back suggests he told her they were going on an adventure. I wonder how much contact he had with her prior to that night. Could be have suggested it in advance? Just pondering. She seemed like such an energetic feisty little girl who was clearly well loved. Would she really have not cried out for help? We may never know.

I keep coming back to the same thing. She thought they were going on an adventure.

 

[Mercsw]

The cctv is chilling. If it wasn’t for the overwhelming dna evidence, I would say they got the wrong guy. This is a very dangerous individual who thankfully never got good at what he does and will continue to do.

 

[Joolz1975]

The issue of which way a struggling parent can turn is one that really needs to be addressed.

With each passing generation we seem to be seeing a reduction in fear of authority or consequences of behaving badly.

When i was a kid, the threat that my mother might call for our local copper to come and see me was more than enough to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!

Now nothing seems to bother teenagers, they have no respect or fear of police or teachers or parents....in fact more of them are bothered about their followers on twitter than they are about any of that stuff.

Parenting is becoming a different job to the one it once was and also in my opinion we need to revisit the whole idea of a 16 year old male being regarded as a child.
In so many ways, todays 16 year old is far more worldly wise than i was at 18.

Times are changing rapidly but the measures and safety nets for parents are still the same ones which to some extent were wholly inadequate in their day 30-40 years ago.

A bigger debate much needed methinks

100% agree.

If I ever got in trouble at school my mum and dad would have gone ballistic at me and if have either got grounded or my mum's slipper.

Fast forward a generation and my cousins kids get in trouble at school and rather than discipline the kids she goes and kicks off at the teachers.

She's teaching them nothing about respect or decency.

My 13 year old is so much more grown up than in was at her age so I agree that the whole system needs to be looked at.

 

[404_notfound]

I had major problems with my son as a teen (thankfully he is amazing now).

But one social worker was telling me he was a risk to my younger child and couldn't stay at home..the other was telling me that I had parental responsibility to house him lol.

They even wrote saying they had made home visits to assess...They never once set foot in my home.

Totally useless and I work for the LA so I don't normally bad mouth them.

Luckily family stepped in and he stayed with them for a while but it could have been so much worse.

For the record I don't think he would ever have hurt us sister, but is behaviour for a time was risky.

And I did everything I could to get help..there was very little.

My heart goes out to you. It's so hard, people don't understand. There aren't the actual services needed, and the services there are are in such short supply, and even the supply there is is totally underfunded and basically broken. Glad your family could help and good on you for getting you all through it. We are really lucky to have an excellent SW (she's disabilities team but was C&F before so knows what's what) but I constantly worry she'll burn out and get replaced because some of the one's assigned to my friends with disabled kids are pretty dire.

Yep, that makes sense too. If his mother hadn't have handed the CCTV footage in who knows where we'd be right now. Do you think the police would have gotten around to him?

I think the Island knew it was him. @Taskforce88 can chime in if they feel they would like to as they have some local knowledge and mine is vaguer. But i recall on the first day of evidence reading that Toni was apparently getting texts on the morning Alesha was found from other people suggesting he might have something to do with it, hence perhaps her "bad feeling" about him. It was Toni who asked his mum to check her CCTV and Toni's aunt who his mum confided in about what was on the CCTV and it was Toni's aunt who urged her to call the police. It was Toni's aunt who was in the home with the "uncle" too was it not? (btw i think you have a good reason to accuse TM of framing him right there, i bet he was thinking he'd get away with it if TM hadn't told his mum to check the CCTV). I think that he would have been swabbed for DNA regardless of the CCTV just because of the level of local suspicion, and therefore caught anyway. However i do feel the CCTV is particularly damning evidence and who knows if his ridiculous defence would have led to a not proven if not for the CCTV, so his mother made a huge difference telling the police about it IMO.

 

[truthseeker1975]

Alesha MacPhail's gran says naming her killer was the 'last thing she wanted'

She has a point, now he is named and shamed he has max attention, the newspapers have done no favours with the slender man thing, i wonder if in the future some sick kid like aaron cambell reads all the stories about it and copies it

 

[TaylorCallum]

I see quite a few people are already taking issue with the Daily Mail's description of him.

"He is handsome, in a modern, metrosexual way, with luxuriant, swept-over hair and a milky complexion. "

 

[404_notfound]

Alesha MacPhail's gran says naming her killer was the 'last thing she wanted'

She has a point, now he is named and shamed he has max attention, the newspapers have done no favours with the slender man thing, i wonder if in the future some sick kid like aaron cambell reads all the stories about it and copies it

Bravo Mirror, for publishing an article about the gran's distress at him being named along with his name and 6 images of him

I think one factor for the court was to try and undo some of the damage done to TM by him accusing her as he did. Now it is his name on the lips of those baying for blood instead of hers. And obviously Alesha's gran might not have that as a higher priority than her precious grandchild.

 

[Yenriac]

Alesha MacPhail's gran says naming her killer was the 'last thing she wanted'

She has a point, now he is named and shamed he has max attention, the newspapers have done no favours with the slender man thing, i wonder if in the future some sick kid like aaron cambell reads all the stories about it and copies it

Totally understand her.