The mother of a teenager accused of the murder and rape of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail has said her son was “adamant” he had nothing to do with death.
The High Court in Glasgow heard how she questioned the 16-year-old after CCTV showed he 'disappeared for nearly two hours' on the night the child disappeared.
Alesha’s naked body was found in a wooded area on the Isle of Bute, where she lived, on July 2, last year.
A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age, denies abducting the youngster from the island home she shared with her dad and grandparents, raping and murdering her, and attempting to hide evidence.
Earlier a pathologist who examined the dead body told how there were 117 catastrophic injuries on her body - and he “had never seen anything like” them.
Jurors were shown the extent of the injuries, which judge Lord Matthews warned them were “distressing”.
Pathologist John Williams said the girl, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire, had suffered more severe injuries to certain parts of her body than he had ever seen before.
Describing the graphic nature of the injuries, he said she had been smothered to death and that cause of death was “significant and forceful pressure to her neck and face”, with bleeding evident.
Most of the 117 injuries, he said, were caused by the nature of the ground she was lying on.
He said the injuries to her neck and face were consistent with being gripped, and those to her nose and mouth were consistent with “smothering”.
He added it was also possible her was windpipe pushed shut.
Mr Williams, employed by the University of Glasgow, noted the the soles of Alesha’s feet were clean and uninjured. He agreed that this suggested Alesha was carried with her feet uncovered to the place where she died.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC asked him: "Have you ever before seen injuries of these sort...?"
Dr Williams replied: "No."
The court later heard how the accused’s mother said her son was “adamant” he had nothing to do it.
She said after Alesha’s body was found, she watched CCTV footage from cameras installed at their home.
The 54-year-old said she had told police the footage showed her son, who had been drinking with friends at home on Sunday evening, leaving the property twice in the early hours July 2.
He had a party that night, to celebrate the end of exams, the woman said, and the lad had drunk a bottle of wine and Mad Dog 2020.
The mother said she was trying to get him to call his sister, who had left the house with friends.
She said she went to bed, and was awoken the next day to hear shouting outside, as members of the public searched for Alesha.
The mother checked her back garden, then asked her son if he had heard anything. He told her ‘no’ and went back to sleep, the court heard.
The court was shown footage in which she identified her son leaving the home at 1.54am on July 2, wearing all black, and returning at 3.35am no longer wearing his black top.
At 3.44am, a light is turned on in the bathroom and he is seen leaving a minute later wearing only shorts and carrying an item.
He leaves the house again at 3.58am, running off wearing shoes, shorts and a top before returning at 4.07am.
Asked by the prosecutor, Iain McSporran QC, if she had tried to find out why her son had left the house in the middle of the night, she said he had told her he was looking for his lost phone, and later explained that he had been trying to buy cannabis.
Asked by Mr McSporran if his response “puzzled” her, she replied: “Yes.”
She later phoned police to “eliminate” her son from inquiries, saying: “Obviously I really didn’t think he had anything to do with it whatsoever.”
She added: "I talked to him and tried to explain that whoever had done this to this little girl their DNA would be all over her.
"He was adamant, absolutely adamant, that he had nothing to do with it. There was no way they would find DNA on this little girl because he hadn't seen her and he hadn't been with her."
Asked why she discussed DNA with him, she said she believed it was okay to talk about it along with his uncle and a friend, before he went to bed.
The mother told how she joined in the search party with her dog, and said she saw Alesha’s father father Robert MacPhail and his girlfriend Toni McLachlan looking “very upset” as they came down from the woods.
The mother was also shown a photograph of a knife recovered by police from the beach, which she confirmed was “very similar” to one from a set in her kitchen.
Police search Alesha MacPhail's grandparent's front garden in July
When Mr McSporran told her police had found a five-knife block with one knife missing in her kitchen, she said she had “no idea whatsoever” how it had come to be on the shore.
Prosecutors allege the accused was armed with a knife when he took Alesha from her bed.
His mother was also shown jogging trousers and boxers at the shore, which she said looked like her son's.
She described her son as "clever at maths", "well-liked" and said he had "lots of friends".
The court also heard from Alexander McLachlan, 48, who said CCTV from his home in Marine Place, Rothesay, shown to the jury, captured a figure carrying something along the shoreline at 2.26am on July 2 and he "presumed it was somebody carrying a child".
His sister-in-law Shari Strathie, 33, said CCTV from her home next door, also shown in court, featured a person carrying something on their front "with legs hanging down".
The 16-year-old accused has lodged a special defence blaming Ms McLachlan for the killing.
During her evidence to the court on Wednesday she insisted she had had nothing to do with the girl’s death, telling jurors: “I loved her to pieces.”
The trial continues.
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