The 16-year-old boy who raped and murdered Alesha MacPhail ‘has a price on his head’, a court heard.
Aaron Campbell’s lawyer made the claim that the teenager had been warned after he was named on social media in a bid to stop the judge from allowing him to be identified.
Campbell abducted the six-year-old from her family home before her naked body was dumped in the woods of the Isle of Bute with 117 injuries on July 2 last year.
Brian McConnachie QC told the High Court in Glasgow that Campbell had a history of self harm and depression and had been tested for ADHD.
Depraved teenager Aaron Campbell, 16, enjoyed playing violent video games including Fortnite and Slender: The Eight Pages
He also said Campbell had been warned there was a ‘price on his head’ and that publishing his name could make the situation worse in prison.
But the judge said it would be ‘naive’ to think that inmates at prison would not already be aware of his conviction after his name had already appeared on social media.
Campbell could not previously be identified because he is under 18, but judge Lord Matthews on Friday ruled the press could name him.
The judge said: ‘I think it would be naive to think that publishing his name would make any difference to how he is treated in custody.
‘I can’t think of a case in recent times that has attracted such revulsion.’
Mr McConnachie QC, representing Campbell, said during the hearing on whether he should be identified: ‘The fact that things may be on social media is not a reason that the court should overrule the prohibition.’
Mr McConnachie also said the fact the boy had blamed another person was no reason to identify him and that this would ‘simply be tit for tat’.
Campbell was caught out by his own mother’s CCTV as he came home in the middle of the night after killing the six-year-old girl, it emerged today.
Chilling footage revealed Aaron Campbell arriving and leaving twice outside his Isle of Bute family home on the night Alesha was abducted before her naked body was dumped in the woods with 117 injuries on July 2 last year.
His mother believed her teenage son might have seen something relevant to the investigation – and contacted police after reviewing the CCTV footage, despite her son being adamant he had nothing to do with the ‘barbaric and wicked’ murder on the Scottish holiday island.
Campbell (left) had received anonymity due to his age, over the murder of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail (right)
The cat-torturing, adrenaline junkie teenager – who was obsessed with gaining YouTube followers, playing violent video games such as Fortnite and recording himself performing acrobatic moves on a trampoline – had received anonymity due to his age, but a judge unmasked him today.
Campbell even filmed himself playing a game about internet horror meme the Slender Man. Fictional stories about the supernatural character – famed for abducting and killing children then dumping them in the woods – bear a chilling resemblance to what Campbell did to ‘little angel’ Alesha.
The murderer – who was also known to have killed and skinned cats before burying them in the back garden – appears to be egotistical and obsessed with the number of people who subscribed to his YouTube channel.
Campbell was caught on his mother’s CCTV arriving at his Isle of Bute family home on the night Alesha MacPhail was killed
The teenager was then seen jumping over the fence outside the property just under ten minutes later when he left the house
Campbell, 16, arrived home again at 3.52am but was caught on CCTV cameras running away from the house six minutes later
Alesha’s mother Georgina Lochrane (left, today) and father Robert MacPhail (right, yesterday) outside Glasgow High Court
In the CCTV, he was first spotted leaving the family home at 1.54am, when he went to the MacPhails’ home and took Alesha out of bed before raping and murdering her. He was then seen returning home at 3.35am.
Ten minutes later he left home wearing a pair of shorts but no shirt or shoes. He came back at 3.52am and then left again six minutes later carrying a torch. Campbell then arrived home for the last time at 4.07am.
Campbell was told that the rape, murder and abduction of the six-year-old girl on the Isle of Bute on July 2 last year was among the ‘wickedest’ crimes that Glasgow High Court had ever heard.
Judge Lord Matthews, who presided over the nine-day trial, held a hearing today to decide if anonymity should be lifted, which was attended by Campbell along with dozens of journalists and lawyers.
In a short film on YouTube, Campbell thanked 50 people for watching his trampolining videos where he filmed himself doing backflips. In a cringeworthy piece to camera he says: ‘Yo. What’s up guys? It’s Aaron Campbell here.
‘I’ve got 50 subscribers, thank you, although I’m nearly at 80 it’s a rounder number. This video is going to be a 50 subscriber special of some cool trampoline tricks for you’.
Campbell appeared a clean-cut figure, well dressed and handsome – and his family refused to believe he was capable of crime. But he led a secret life smoking drugs and drinking heavily.
In the months before the six-year-old’s murder, Campbell – whose father is an oil rig supervisor who works overseas – had allegedly sexually assaulted one girl and tried to drown another.
Alesha’s devoted mother, Georgina ‘Genie’ Lochrane, sent her to Bute for a break believing she would be safer there than on their grim estate in Airdrie, 12 miles east of Glasgow.
Miss Lochrane said: ‘I thought that if Alesha was safe anywhere these days, it was on that island, miles from anywhere.
‘But it seems to me now that nowhere in the world is safe any more. I didn’t know much about Bute, or the people who live there, but after all that I’ve heard [at the murder trial] I certainly wouldn’t want to live somewhere like that.
Campbell appeared a clean-cut figure, well dressed and handsome – and his family refused to believe he was capable of crime
Campbell was pictured on CCTV multiple times outside the family home (pictured) on July 2 last year on the Isle of Bute
‘It emerged during the trail that Alesha’s father was watching porn on the night she was abducted, and that he sold cannabis to her killer, whose circle of friends routinely used drugs and cheap booze and swapped sick jokes on Snapchat.
Alesha’s murderer was born on the mainland but when he reached school age his mother, who has family connections on the island, brought him to live there because – ironically – she thought it would provide him with a secure upbringing.
‘I wanted him to grow up in a safe place, a peaceful environment, and get a good education,’ she said at the family home, a solid Victorian house with panoramic views of the Firth and extensive gardens where the killer and his friends would drink and smoke cannabis.
‘They said in court that he was depressed but I never saw any signs of depression. He would get down now and again but he was doing well.
‘He had passed some exams and he was doing an engineering course one day a week. He was good at maths, and planned to go to university.
‘He wasn’t a violent boy. He was very normal. Yes, he smoked cannabis, but it’s rife among kids on this island.
‘I knew he was buying it from Rab [Alesha’s father] and Toni [Rab’s girlfriend], but what could I do? If I went to the police my son would be in trouble.
‘I just hoped he’d grow out of it. Anyway, it wasn’t every weekend. It was only occasionally.’
A pair of jogging bottoms found on Rothesay beach by police during the search for Alesha MacPhail. DNA matching the murderer was recovered from the waistband
A knife found on Rothesay beach by police during the search for Alesha last July
Nothing about Campbell’s demeanour during the trial marked him out as a sadistic killer.
He is handsome, in a modern, metrosexual way, with luxuriant, swept-over hair and a milky complexion.
Dressed immaculately, in a tartan suit and collar and tie, Campbell gave evidence with great self-assurance.
He appears to have been a popular, charismatic figure among his peer group and there was no shortage of girlfriends.
Indeed, for a year Campbell dated one of the most eye-catching girls at his school. However, there was another side to the plausible young man that first emerged when he was a boy of six or seven.
While swimming with another a little girl at the leisure centre, Campbell held her head under the water so long that she feared she would drown.
According to a neighbour, he developed into a local nuisance and had been caught trying to set fire to buildings.
More recently he is said to have sexually abused a teenage girl and shown compromising mobile phone pictures of her to his friends. Campbell has been compared to a young Ian Brady – a serial killer in the making caught after his first murder.
Alesha’s killer spent much of his time drinking heavily, getting stoned, body-building and using social media in a pathetic attempt to impress his friends. Campbell was also an adrenaline junkie who got his kicks by jumping into the sea from great heights.
He could not previously be identified because he is under 18 but judge Lord Matthews on Friday ruled he can be named after considering an application from media outlets.
He said: ‘I can’t think of a case in recent times that has attracted such revulsion. I intend to grant the application. The press may name the accused and publish images of him.’
Crucial to the decision to name Aaron Campbell was the accusations he made against Toni-Louise McLachlan, 18.
Representing Scots media organisations urging Lord Matthews to lift the ban, Anthony Graham QC told the court that the allegations Campbell made against Ms McLachlan was a ‘substantial attempt to pervert the course of justice’.
Alesha (left) with Mr MacPhail (centre) and his girlfriend Toni Louise McLachlan (shown right)
A police forensic team investigate at a house on the Isle of Bute outside Rothesay last July
Mr Graham said: ‘The incriminee enjoyed no statutory protection and was named and photographed and had her photographs published.
‘He has introduced the issue of sexual involvement with the incriminee. By the very nature of that defence and by finding him party to that defence, the pannel has introduced to the trial adult themes.’
No appeal was lodged by Campbell’s defence, Brian McConnachie QC. But the brief told the court that Campbell was ‘at risk of attack’.
Mr McConnachie said: ‘There was a history of self-harm, of anxiety and he had been tested for ADHD and was awaiting further testing due at the time of his arrest.
‘As far as he’s concerned, there’s issues both with attack from others and the potential matter of self-harm. The onus is on the party seeking to have the prohibition lifted and to satisfy the court.’
Media lawyer Mr Graham said: ‘It’s naive to think he remains anonymous on Bute, a community in no little part affected by this.’
And he said Campbell would be locked up at HMYOI Polmont in Falkirk until he was 21. Judge Lord Matthews told the court: ‘Children don’t usually commit offences of this nature.’
Mr Graham concurred and said: ‘It’s unusual for a child to be convicted of murder.’
He urged for Campbell’s name, his address, his images, school and ‘such background which is not protected otherwise’ should be allowed to be published.
Granting the application, Lord Matthews said: ‘I intend to name the accused.’
The media outlets represented were Associated Newspapers, BBC Scotland, Sky, News UK & Ireland, Newsquest, Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail, and STV.
The court heard Campbell has a history of self-harm, depression and anxiety and that he has been tested for attention attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
During the trial the court heard he had a ‘dark sense of humour’, used cannabis and drank alcohol.
The Crown said on Friday that it would remain largely neutral on whether Campbell should be named.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC told the court: ‘I have no submissions that his Lordship should exercise his discretion one way or the other.’
After the trial, the schoolgirl’s family spoke of their heartbreak at losing Alesha.
Her mother Georgina Lochrane, said: ‘Words cannot express just how devastated I am to have lost my beautiful, happy, smiley wee girl.
‘I am glad that the boy who did this has finally been brought to justice and that he will not be able to inflict the pain on another family that he has done to mine.
‘Alesha, I love you so much, my wee pal. I will miss you forever.’
The MacPhail family said: ‘We can’t believe that we will never see our wee angel Alesha again. We miss her so much.
‘We hope that the boy who took her from us is jailed for a long time because of what he has done to our family. Alesha may be gone from our lives but she will always be in our hearts.’