Alesha MacPhail’s mother vents over ‘vile’ murderer’s appeal bid

The mother of murdered schoolgirl Alesha MacPhail has blasted a decision to grant her killer an appeal against his sentence.

Georgina Lochrane leaves court. Pic: John Devlin

eorgina Lochrane, 24, slammed a move to allow Aaron Campbell a chance to challenge his 27-year sentence for abducting, raping, and murdering six-year-old Alesha.

Campbell, 16, was ordered to serve a life sentence for killing Alesha on the Isle of Bute on 2 July last year.

During his trial, Campbell denied murdering Alesha, but before sentencing it emerged he had confessed.

A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service said three judges would preside over the appeal, which is set to heard in Edinburgh on 7 August.

Miss Lochrane, from Airdrie in Lanarkshire, has posted a strongly worded Facebook message where she branded Campbell a “rat” and called for justice for her daughter.

She said: “Still livid. Little runt how much more pain and hurt does this thing have to cause!!

“Wtf is up with our system even allowing that the time of day!! Am pretty sure they’ll have read its social enquiry reports and how it’s still getting this far is beyond me!!

“For the first time in 7 years the system was actually doing right by Alesha!

“Didn’t last that did it. Give the rat nothing less and let me at it this time cause I will be ensuring there’s no one sitting in front of me!!!” Miss Lochrane also asked Facebook users to upload a picture of Alesha as their profile image.

She said: “Now we need to make a stand and get justice for Alesha.”

Miss Lochrane’s cousin Georgia Lochrane also posted on Facebook. She said: “Regardless of age that disgusting vile creature committed one of the most disgusting crimes I’ve ever heard of.”

Alesha, from Airdrie in Lanarkshire, was only a few days into her summer holiday when Campbell took her from her bed in the middle of the night.

The child’s body was found in the grounds of a former hotel the following morning.

A post-mortem examination later revealed she had suffered 117 injuries.

During his nine-day trial in February, Campbell lodged a special defence naming the 18-year-old girlfriend of Alesha’s father as the killer.

He also took the stand and told the jury his DNA must have been planted at the crime scene.

But the prosecution case, built on forensic evidence and CCTV provided by Campbell’s mother, was overwhelming.

The jury at the High Court in Glasgow took three hours to unanimously convict the schoolboy.