A teenager has been found guilty of abducting, raping and murdering six-year-old Alesha MacPhail.
READ MORE: Alesha MacPhail murder: Why teenage killer still can’t be named
The 16-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was found guilty after a nine-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Alesha was abducted from her grandparents’ home on the Isle of Bute and her body was found in the woods several hours later.
The 16-year-old killer denied abducting, raping and murdering the schoolgirl, lodging a special defence of incrimination blaming the girlfriend of Alesha’s father for the crime.
The jury took three hours to find the teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, unanimously guilty.
READ MORE: Alesha Macphail murder: Mum reacts to guilty verdict
Alesha's body was found in woods on the Isle of Bute on July 2 last year, hours after she was reported missing from the house her father shared with his parents on the island, where she was staying for part of the school holidays.
Judge Lord Matthews told the boy he had committed some of the "wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard".
He deferred sentence until March 21.
As the accused was led downstairs, a man in the public gallery shouted "evil" and another said "fu**ing scumbag".
In a statement issued via police, Alesha's mother Georgina Lochrane said: "Words cannot express just how devastated I am to have lost my beautiful, happy, smiley wee girl.
"I am glad that the boy who did this has finally been brought to justice and that he will not be able to inflict the pain on another family that he has done to mine.
"Alesha, I love you so much, my wee pal. I will miss you forever."
The MacPhail 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.
"Alesha may be gone from our lives but she will always be in our hearts."
Advocate Depute Iain McSporran, who led the prosecution, said that to have a child taken in the "bestial manner" in which Alesha lost her life was "infathomable".
He read excerpts from a victim impact statement which said her mother suffered nightmares about what had been done to her daughter and her father had experienced "insufferable pain".
Members of the jury were offered a counselling service and were told they did not have to sit on a case again in future if they did not wish to.
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