Alesha MacPhail‘s teenage killer has had his minimum sentence slashed by three years afterraping and murdering the six-year-oldon the Isle of Bute last summer.
Aaron Campbell, 17, claimed his 27 – year sentence was “excessive” in an appeal against the jail term heard at theCourtof Criminal Appeal inEdinburghlast month.
Three of the country top judges have now decided that the minimum term he will serve before being considered for parole will be reduced from 27 years to 24.
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Alesha MacPhail
The killer’s solicitor Brian McConnachie told the appeal that the day of his release “may never come” but said the minimum punishment was “excessive and amounts to a miscarriage of justice “due to his age.
They used the case of Luke Mitchell, who murdered his girlfriend Jodi Jones when he was just 15, to back up the appeal.
Campbell will now be 40 years old when his release can be
Alesha’s mum Georgina Lochrane previouslydescribed the appeal as “laughable”.
A full written judgement has just been published – 34 days after judges rose to consider their decision.
Campbell was 16 when he abducted Alesha, from Airdrie, from her bed after sneaking into her grandparents’ home on the island on July 2 last year.
He carried her to woodland where he raped and suffocated her, leaving her body to be discovered by a member of a search party the next morning.
Campbell was unanimously convicted by a jury after putting Alesha’s loved ones through a nine-day trial in February, during which he tried to incriminate Alesha’s dad’s girlfriend for the murder.
He subsequently admitting his guilt to a court psychologist, saying he was “quite satisfied” with the murder and had to “zip his mouth” to stop himself laughing during the trial.
He was sentenced to detention without limit of time in March.
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