The devastated mother of murdered Alesha MacPhail has called for the return of the death penalty ahead of the sentencing of her daughter's killer. 

Georgina Lochrane will return to Glasgow's High Court this week to see 16-year-old Aaron Campbell sentenced for the murder of six-year-old Alesha last July. 

In an interview with the Daily Record, Georgina, who lives in Airdrie, has said the murderer does not deserve to ever be released. 

She added: "If he is 16 and has committed a crime which the pathologist said is the worst he has ever seen, imagine what he can do in 20 years’ time. He’s in a cell and has time to plot. He has clearly thought it out.

“That does not deserve to ever be released back into society. That thing is an animal.

“They should bring back the death penalty. They make it far too easy for people like him. Perpetrators are getting younger and so are their victims.”

"I didn’t have a clue who he was. I thought it would have been a grown man or someone who Alesha knew.

“It never crossed my mind it could be a 16-year-old. I was his age when I had Alesha. He had his school, his friends, he clearly had a life ahead of him. I just don’t get it.”

The shattered mum, who also has a four-year-old daughter, has now said she will search for answers as to why Alesha was killed. 

She said: “I just want to know, why her? Why Alesha?

“I have questions that need answered and he is the only one who can answer them.

“If you woke Alesha up, she cried. If someone went into her room who she didn’t know, she would have screamed and tried to hide. If she couldn’t find anywhere to hide, she would have tried to run.

“If she was awake, she would have got out of his grip and tried everything she could. She would have bitten, kicked, scratched and done everything in her power to get away.

“He’s got to have put her unconscious before taking her out of that house. I’ve never understood how a house with four adults in it couldn’t hear a thing.”

“When the verdict was read out and he was walking down the stairs, he smiled at us, at our full family.

“I do want to go to see him. He has to approve the visitation but I’m more than happy to go face-to-face with him. I want him to look me in the eyes and I want to know why.

“My family are broken. We just don’t know how to pick ourselves up. What happened to Alesha has crumbled us and there’s no coming back from it.

“I just want to cuddle Alesha and tell her it’s OK and that’s not possible. It kills me every day.”

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