Alesha MacPhail murder trial shown pictures of crime scene

Image copyright Facebook

Jurors in the Alesha MacPhail murder trial have been shown pictures of the crime scene.

The prosecutor also issued a warning before showing the deceased with a pile of clothing next to her.

The images also showed the wooded area on the Isle of Bute where the six-year-old was found.

A 16-year-old boy – who cannot be named because of his age – denies abducting, raping and murdering Alesha on 2 July last year.

The teenager has lodged a special defence claiming the crime was committed by a woman called Toni Louise McLachlan.

Prosecutor Iain McSporran QC issued the warning before the images were shown to the jury and on the public screens in the High Court in Glasgow.

Reported missing

A number of people, including relatives of Alesha, left the court before the pictures were shown.

They included photographs and 360-degree images of the wooded area between High Road and Gortans Road on Rothesay, where the body was discovered.

The jury were also shown interior images of the attic conversion flat on Ardbeg Road, where Alesha was staying.

They were among a series of 360-degree images captured by Scottish Police Authority scene examiner Edward Brown.

Jurors were previously told Alesha’s naked body was found by a man at 08:54 on 2 July in the grounds of the former Kyles Hydropathic Hotel.

The child was pronounced dead at 09:23.

The court also heard it was Alesha’s grandmother Angela King who had reported the girl missing at 06:23 on 2 July.

Prosecutors allege the accused boy was armed with a knife when he took Alesha from her bed at a house in Ardbeg Road.

‘Shaken violently’

It is claimed he then carried the schoolgirl to the site of the former hotel.

The indictment states he took off Alesha’s clothes, shook her violently before placing his hands over her nose, mouth and around her neck.

The boy is said to have “applied pressure” to her face, inflicted injuries by “means unknown” with prosecutors alleging he went on to rape and murder Alesha.

The teenager faces a separate charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

It is alleged he went to another house in Ardbeg Road before disposing of the clothes he had worn and then taking a shower to remove blood from his body.

This is said to have been done in a bid to “destroy or conceal evidence”.

The trial continues.