A 16-year-old boy has been charged in the rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, according to a new report.
Alesha MacPhail was visiting family while on break from school when she was reported missing early Monday, according to The Telegraph. Her body was discovered a few hours later — and police launched a murder investigation following the results of her autopsy, the outlet reported.
The teen — who was not identified for legal reasons — was arrested two days later and charged with murder and rape of a young child, according to the report.
He entered no plea, and was ordered held without bail ahead of another court appearance later this month.
He was known to Alesha’s family, but it was unclear how.
Alesha had been visiting the Victorian seaside resort of Rothesay, where her grandparents, Angela King, 46, and Calum MacPhail, 49, were living, the outlet reported Thursday. Her father, Rab MacPhail, 25, and his girlfriend had also been staying there.
She lived with her mother, Georgina Lochrane, 23, on the Scottish mainland in Airdie, North Lanarkshire — and had come to Bute for the summer, according to the report.
The news came as a shock to residents of the seaside town and holiday resort.
“It’s paradise, it’s beautiful,” Bob Mason, 73, who lived around the corner from the house, told the outlet. “There’s very little crime, I don’t lock my door, most people don’t. But everybody’s a bit jumpy now.”
The last murder on Bute was in 1997, when two men killed 39-year-old Allison McGarrigle — who had planned to report them for abusing a young boy — and dumped her body at sea, the BBC reported.