A boy who killed six-year-old Alesha MacPhail in a "bestial manner" could be identified on Friday.
The 16-year-old is facing a life sentence after being found guilty of raping and murdering the youngster while she visited her grandparents on holiday.
Judge Lord Matthews told him he had committed some of the "wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard".
The boy cannot currently be identified for legal reasons as he is under 18, but the judge will consider an application from media outlets to lift the court order.
Read more: Why Alesha MacPhail's teenage killer still can’t be named
The teenager took Alesha MacPhail from the bed where she was sleeping on the Isle of Bute on July 2 last year and inflicted horrific injuries before dumping her body in woodland.
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow took three hours to find the boy guilty unanimously, following a nine-day trial.
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 separately on March 21.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel