Aaron Campbell: Teenager who raped and murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail appeals against sentence

Killer who left child’s body with 117 ‘catastrophic’ injuries challenges jail term length

The teenage boy who abducted, raped and murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail has been granted leave to appeal against the length of his life sentence.

Aaron Campbell was ordered to spend a minimum of 27 years in prison in March. Judge Lord Matthews warned Campbell that he may never be released from jail.

He described the 17-year-old as a “cold, callous, calculating, remorseless and dangerous individual”.

Campbell has now been granted leave to appeal his life term, a spokesperson for Edinburgh’s High Court has confirmed.

Six-year-old Alesha was visiting her grandparents on the Isle of Bute last July when she went missing.

Her naked body was discovered in woodland on 2 July. She had sustained 117 injuries, some of which a pathologist described as “catastrophic”.

Detectives later found that in the days after her death, Campbell’s phone had been used to Google the phrase: “How do police find DNA”?

A jury unanimously found the teenager guilty after a nine-day trial held in February 2018 at Glasgow’s High Court.

Campbell confessed between the trial and sentencing hearing and said he was “quite satisfied by the murder.”

His appeal hearing has been scheduled for 7 August

Additional reporting by agencies