A TEENAGER's claim that six-year-old Alesha MacPhail was murdered by her father's girlfriend Toni McLachlan has been dismissed as “preposterous” by prosecutors.
Iain McSporran, QC, the advocate depute, in summing up said that the teenager accused of abducting, raping and murdering Alesha told a "pack of lies" and faced a "mountain of evidence" against him.
The teenager claimed in a "special defence" that it was Ms McLachlan who killed Alesha and planted his DNA from a used condom. She denies this saying she “loved” Alesha and refutes that she had sex with the accused on July 2.
Mr McSporran said that the defence by the 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a "preposterous story", that DNA matching the accused was "pretty well all over" Alesha's body and clothes and that it was the teenager who “brutalised” the six-year-old, inflicting 117 injuries.
"He spun a yarn, a pack of lies. He has also told a pack of lies in the witness box," he said.
The boy had also claimed that Ms McLachlan may have been "fantasizing" about harming Alesha.
The advocate depute said no-one else had come up with that suggestion.
He added: "He introduced that into evidence. It was his comment, his word."
Mr McSporran asked the jury: “What’s the evidence of Toni McLachlan’s involvement other than the accused’s theory? Not one single piece.”
And of the accused's contact with the police Mr McSporran said: “Down comes a confident young man, and spins them a yarn.”
Earlier one witness claimed Ms McLachlan felt "jealous and threatened" by Alesha.
But the High Court in Glasgow also heard Ms McLachlan, 18, was said to 'love' Alesha and be 'really good' to her.
The teenager denies killing Alesha after she went to stay with her father Robert MacPhail and grandparents on the Isle of Bute last July.
Alesha's father Robert MacPhail (left) arrives at court.
Asked about Ms McLachlan's relationship with Alesha, Lynsey Calderwood, 20, said: "They were happy, they got on really well. Toni was really good to her and they both liked each other."
Ms Calderwood, said in a statement three days after Alesha's death: "I always felt Toni was jealous and she felt threatened of the time and attention Rab gave to Alesha."
READ MORE: Alesha MacPhail murder trial shown images of schoolgirl's body
She also said that the day after Alesha went missing Toni said something to her along the lines of "she's in a better place", which she thought was odd.
Meanwhile neighbour Ms Lax, 67, told the court that she heard Miss McLachlan being "beaten up over a period of a good few months".
Called as a defence witness, retired voluntary worker Ms Lax claimed she heard Miss McLachlan screaming and 'the sound of hitting' and 'skin slapping'.
The schoolgirl from Airdrie had arrived at the home her grandparents shared with her father, on the Isle of Bute for the school holidays shortly before she went missing on July 2 last year.
The six-year-old was last seen by her family at about 11pm on 1 July. Her grandmother, Angela King, reported her missing at 6.23am the next day and appealed for help on Facebook to search the island. A member of the public found Alesha’s body about half a mile away at about 9am.
Addressing the jury in his closing speech on the eighth day of the trial, Mr McSporran invited them to convict the 16-year-old, saying the only "true" verdict would be to find him guilty.
He added: "We say he raped and murdered her and that's the verdict we seek."
He said the evidence "points squarely" to her being abducted and taken to where she was found by the person who killed her, which he claimed was the accused.
Mr McSporran said the timing of a figure being caught on CCTV, and who some witnesses said appeared to be carrying something, "fits perfectly" with this version of events.
The teenager has said he lied to police about his actions when Alesha went missing, claiming he did so to protect the woman he blames for the killing - Toni McLachlan, the partner of Alesha's father.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, he told the court he and Ms McLachlan had met up and had sex early on July 2 but he did not want to tell police this as he feared it would get back to Mr MacPhail and he would "hurt" Ms McLachlan.
Mr McSporran put it to the jury that they had heard no evidence implicating Ms McLachlan in the crime but a "mountain of evidence" linking the accused to it.
He said the accused's claim that Ms McLachlan took the condom to plant on Alesha after she killed her was "a preposterous story".
Mr McSporran added that DNA matching the accused was "pretty well all over" Alesha's body and clothes and said the Crown's case he had raped her.
But the teenager's defence lawyer, Brian McConnachie QC, urged the jury to acquit his client, questioning why the boy would abduct, rape and murder Alesha having "never met her in his life".
Toni McLachlan (right) is the girlfriend of Alesha's father (left)
Mr McConnachie told the jury in his closing speech that Ms McLachlan's friend agreed in her evidence earlier on Wednesday that the 18-year-old was "jealous" of Alesha and felt "threatened" by the time and attention Mr MacPhail paid his daughter.
Addressing jurors, the lawyer said: "You might think that there is a solid basis on the evidence that Toni McLachlan might wish harm on Alesha MacPhail."
He highlighted that no DNA from the accused was found in the house where Alesha had been staying and none of the schoolgirl's DNA or blood was found in the teenager's home.
He suggested that, if guilty, the boy had gone into the MacPhail family home at night, where there were four adults.
"He then chances upon the room where Alesha is and opens a squeaky door to gain entry, goes in and, whatever condition Alesha is in, he picks her up and took her out.
"A girl, according to Toni McLachlan, who would scream if a stranger came into the room."
The QC also accused the prosecution of "trying too hard to make something out of nothing".
The accused denies abducting, raping and murdering Alesha. A charge he faced of attempting to hide evidence was dropped by the Crown.
The case continues.
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