VIDEO: Alesha MacPhail murderer identified as Aaron Campbell

The identity of the 16-year-old who abducted, raped and murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail has been revealed.

The judge who presided over the trial in Glasgow has lifted the ban on naming teenager Aaron Campbell.

Media outlets had put forward a case for revising the court order which allowed Mr Campbell’s identity to be kept secret.

It is currently illegal to give the name, address, school or any other information which could identify anyone under the age of 18 who is the accused, victim or witness in a criminal case

The order can only be lifted by a judge.

Lord Matthews said: “Parliament has provided the court with a discretion to dispense with the prohibition.”

He continued: “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.”

The teenager took Alesha MacPhail from the bed where she was sleeping on the Isle of Bute on July 2 last year.

Prior to conviction, Campbell, from Ardbeg, near Rothsay on the Isle of Bute was living at home with his mother and younger sister. His father works offshore in the oil industry.

He attended the local school on Bute, where his mother said during the trial, that he excelled in Maths.

The trial also heard statements from Campbell’s friends on the island, who was described as a popular boy with a dark sense of humour.

On the night of Alesha’s murder, he held a party with school friends at the family home to celebrate the end of exams.

He tried to contact Alesha’s stepmother, Toni McLachlan that night to buy cannabis from her. He later tried to accuse her of the murder of her six-year-old step daughter.

Pathologist John Williams told the court Alesha had 117 separate injuries, and a post-mortem examination he conducted indicated she had died from “significant and forceful pressure to her neck and face”.

He agreed the injuries to her private parts were “catastrophic” – more severe than any he had ever seen before – and were at least partially inflicted while she was still alive.

Judge Lord Matthews told Campbell he had committed some of the “wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard”.

© John Linton / PA Wire

He told the boy: “It will be obvious to anyone following this trial that Alesha MacPhail was a sweet, angelic, innocent girl. She came to Rothesay looking forward to spending a few weeks’ holiday with her father, his partner and her grandparents.”

He said that Alesha would, at the end of her trip, have gone home to mother Georgina Lochrane in Airdrie with tales of playing on the beach and finding interesting things in rockpools.

Lord Matthews said: “Instead of that you came into her life, you stole that life and committed some of the wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard.”

He warned the boy, who will be sentenced next month, that “your release may never come”.

In a statement issued by Police Scotland, Alesha’s 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.”

The boy will be sentenced on March 21 and could face detention without limit of time.