The bereft dad of tragic Alesha MacPhail has admitted committing an act of vandalism on the family home of his daughter's killer.
Alesha, aged six, was raped and murdered by Aaron Campbell, then aged 16, after being abducted from her grandparents' home on the Isle of Bute in July 2018.
Robert MacPhail, 30, smashed the window of a parked and empty car belonging to Campbell's mother, Janette, by throwing a rock at it on July 25 2021.
He was "overcome by an overwhelming sense of anger and trauma", Greenock Sheriff Court was told.
Defence solicitor Gerry Keenan said: "It is difficult to envisage something that would engender greater unhappiness than the death of a child, and the way in which the child died.
"Mr MacPhail did not seek out the complainer. He had been drinking and was on his way to see a friend. As he passed the house he saw items of masonry and he was overcome by an overwhelming sense of anger and trauma.
"His behaviour reflected that anger and trauma." MacPhail also pleaded guilty to a charge of shouting and swearing.
Campbell was given a minimum sentence of 27 years after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 2019, which was reduced to 24 years on appeal.
Mr Keenan said: "Mr MacPhail understands that he had no basis from which to direct his anger towards Campbell's family. But one can understand why he did it, although clearly it cannot be excused.
"We are now one year on from the incident and there has been no recurrence." He added: "Mr MacPhail is doing as well as can be expected, albeit the wound of losing his daughter clearly will never heal.
"He is no longer on the anti-depressants which had been prescribed to him. It would be reasonable to assume that what he did is something that is not going to reoccur."
Sheriff Michael Higgins deferred sentence on Mr MacPhail, who committed the offences at an address on Rothesay, Bute, until later this year for him to be of good behaviour.
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