The father of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail sold cannabis to the teenager accused of murdering her, a court has heard.

Robert MacPhail, 26, told the High Court in Glasgow he had done deals with the 16-year-old.

The schoolgirl was found dead in woodland in July last year on the Isle of Bute.

She had been spending a summer break with her father and grandparents in the house they shared.

The accused, who cannot be named because of his age, denies taking her from her bed before raping and murdering her on July 2 last year.

He has lodged a special defence blaming a woman called Toni Louise McLachlan.

Alesha's family also left the courtroom as images of her naked body were about to be shown to the jury.

The court heard that a knife and a pair of men’s boxer shorts were among items found close to where Alesha’s body was discovered on the Isle of Bute.

Alesha was reported missing by her grandmother, Angela King, at 6.23am on July 2, and the child’s body was found at the site of an abandoned hotel just before 9am that day.

She was found face down, in an area of woodland. Photographic evidence showed a kitchen knife and several items of male clothing, including a pair of men’s boxer shorts, jogging bottoms and a hooded top, which were discovered near her body. 

Images showed an inside-out pair of men’s grey jogging bottoms with a pair of men’s boxer shorts inside.

They were found on a stretch of shoreline a short distance from the place where Alesha’s body was discovered.

The jury was shown images from inside the accused’s kitchen, and advocate depute Iain McSporran told the court that the knife found on the beach resembled those found in the house.

Shots of inside the stairwell leading up to the MacPhails' third floor flat showed a child’s pushchair and a doll.

Family members left the court before Mr McSporran showed images of the young girl’s body, with items of clothing lying close to where she lay.

Brian Ferguson, a scene examination supervisor, identified a black hooded top that was also found by a member of the public further along the beach from where the trousers and briefs were found. 

Mr Ferguson first visited the island on July 4 and was tasked with taking photographs of items of clothing in the early hours of July 5. 

The court also heard how Mr MacPhail told his daughter “see you in the morning” - before learning she was missing then later discovered dead.

He recalled that the six-year-old “loved” her summer holiday visits to his family home on the Isle of Bute.

Jurors heard Mr MacPhail, 26, tucked Alesha up in bed last July 1 and left her watching a Peppa Pig DVD.

But there was “pandemonium” the next morning when it emerged the child was not in the flat.

Alesha’s family made a desperate search to find the six-year-old – before her naked body was discovered lying in woodland on the island.

Mr MacPhail also admitted he sold cannabis to the 16-year-old boy accused of killing his daughter.

The teenager would message him through Facebook before the handover took place at a bus shelter across the road from the MacPhail family home, the court heard.

A series of messages were sent by the accused to Mr MacPhail at around 1.39am, which he said he was not aware of until later in the day.

He admitted having sold cannabis to the accused’s sister, but said he stopped selling drugs to the teenage boy three months earlier after intervention from histhe lad’s mother.

However, messages from the accused’s Facebook account, and his sister’s, asked for cannabis on the night Alesha was abducted from her grandparents’ flat, where Mr MacPhail also lived, the court heard.

Mr MacPhail said the teenager had never been in the house but might have been at the front door of the flat. 

He said his daughter had got out of bed during the night, and he had taken her back to bed and told her he would see her in the morning.

The trial continues.