Alesha MacPhail: accused posted video in Snapchat group with words ‘I’ve found guy who’s done it’

The 16-year-old boy accused of raping and murdering Alesha MacPhail posted a video in a group chat showing his body in a mirror with the words ‘I’ve found the guy who’s done it’, a court heard.

Alesha MacPhail.

Giving evidence, a teenage friend who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the boy’s trial she was part of a Snapchat group of around 25 members.

The girl, also aged 16, tipped off police after receiving the video sent by the accused.

She found out about Alesha’s disappearance on July 2, at around 9am, when she was told by her mum.

The girl said: “He was saying what he thought happened and was questioning how she could’ve got out the house”.

She told advocate depute Iain McSporran QC that the video showed him “”going into his bathroom and filming a video of his body”.

She claimed he was clothed and aiming the camera “into the mirror” and showing only his “top half”, reflected on the bathroom mirror.

After the video was sent, a message followed saying ‘I’ve found the guy who’s done it,’ the court heard.

The girl said: “At the time I didn’t think much of it.

“It was a joke, a bad joke, but then when I heard he got arrested I thought more about it.”

She then reported to video to police, and added: “We knew Alesha had been taken.”

The girl described the accused as a ‘close friend’ but said she never socialised with him alone.

Under cross examination by defence brief Brian McConnachie she was asked if “different people were hearing different things”, such as Alesha”sleepwalking” and her being found “clothed or unclothed”.

The girl said: “Yes”.

Another girl, also aged 16, said of the accused: “Police always blame him for all the things that happen in the area of Ardbeg”.

The boy sent her messages saying ‘the police were going to blame it on him’, the court heard.

She reassured him and said he ‘shouldn’t be worried’.

After the child’s body was found the messages stopped, the girl said, and on July 3 the boy was arrested.

She recalled a conversation she had with her ‘close’ friend about crime documentaries, in January 2017, when both teens were aged 14 years old.

The girl said: “We were talking about crime documentaries and I remember him saying he would ‘kill just for a lifetime experience’.”

She said she initiated the conversation, but the boy told her ‘killing part is taking them, being dead is the real goal so meh’, and ‘wouldn’t kill for fun just beneficial if they gone’.

The trial continues.