Alesha MacPhail murder: Aaron Campbell allowed to appeal sentence

Campbell was arrested on 4 July last year, two days after the murder

The teenager who abducted, raped and murdered Alesha MacPhail has been given permission to appeal against his sentence.

Aaron Campbell was ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years of a life sentence for killing the six-year-old on the Isle of Bute on 2 July last year.

During his trial, Campbell, who turned 17 last week, denied that he had ever met Alesha.

However, before sentencing it emerged that he had confessed to the killing.

The appeal will be heard in Edinburgh on 7 August.

A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service said three judges would preside over the appeal.

Alesha MacPhail was killed on the Isle of Bute last July

Alesha, from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, was only a few days into her summer holiday when Campbell took her from her bed in the middle of the night.

The child's body was found in the grounds of a former hotel the following morning.

A post-mortem examination later revealed she had suffered 117 injuries.

During his nine-day trial in February, Campbell lodged a special defence naming the 18-year-old girlfriend of Alesha's father as the killer.

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He also took the stand and told the jury his DNA must have been planted at the crime scene.

But the prosecution case, built on forensic evidence and CCTV provided by Campbell's mother, was overwhelming.

The jury at the High Court in Glasgow took three hours to unanimously convict the schoolboy.

When he returned to the dock to be sentenced in March, the court heard Campbell had finally admitted the crime.