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A PATHOLOGIST who examined the body of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail said the child had 117 injuries - and he "had never seen anything like" the damage to her private area.
A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies raping and murdering the girl, as well as charges of child abduction and defeating the ends of justice.
Alesha was reported missing by her grandmother, Angela King, at 6.23am on July 2, and the child’s body was found at the site of an abandoned hotel on the Isle of Bute just before 9am that day.
She was found naked, face down with her legs spread, in an area of woodland.
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Pathologist Dr John Williams said that injuries appeared to be consistent with pressure applied to her face, causing her death.
Bleeding was evident in her private area, and there was tearing around it, as well as a laceration measuring 2cm.
Pathologist John Williams outside the High Court in Glasgow
The little girl, who was three foot nine inches tall, suffered injuries from “smothering”, which led to her death, the court heard.
Pressure to her neck caused pin-point haemorrhages below her eyes and eyelids.
Injuries to her spinal cord could have been caused be shaking or gripping her hair and shaking her head, the pathologist said.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC said not all of the injuries would be from “blows inflicted”.
Robert MacPhail, father of Alesha MacPhail, outside the High Court in Glasgow
Some could also be from the terrain when she was killed, the court heard.
The pathologist, employed by the University of Glasgow, said her feet were uninjured, suggesting she was carried to the scene.
The court was told she had gone to bed the night before with no socks on.
When the scientist told the court he had ‘never seen anything like’ the injuries she suffered, Mr McSporran paused to ask the jury if they were OK.
Angela King and Calum MacPhail, grandparents of Alesha MacPhail, outside the High Court in Glasgow
Dr Williams said Alesha died from “significant forceful pressure to neck and face”.
When asked if the injuries observed “were something he had witnessed before” in his years of forensic experience, including the damage sustained to the girl’s private parts, Dr Williams said: “No”.
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No illicit drugs were found in her body, which was initially examined in the wooded clearing where she was killed.
Further examination continued at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
Dr Williams said: “It’s extremely difficult to give an accurate time of death.”
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