THE mother of a 16-year-old boy accused of raping and killing Alesha MacPhail told the court she told her son “whoever had done this to this little girl, their DNA would be all over her” - and refused to watch his trial continue.

Quizzed about why she discussed DNA with him, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, believed it was appropriate to talk about it along with his uncle and a friend before they sent him to bed.

On July 4, police returned to take him into custody where they checked him over for bruising, the woman said.

She said her son’s name and face was all over the Internet within half an hour.

READ MORE: Glasgow pathologist who examined girl said she had 117 injuries on her body

The mum was shown items found on the beach, and asked by advocate depute Iain McSporran if they belonged to her son.

When shown a photo of a knife found on the beach across from the MacPhail family home, the woman said: “It could be from my knife set.”

When asked when a knife was missing from the set in her kitchen, the accused’s mother replied: “I wouldn’t know because the police took everything away.

Mr McSporran asked how a knife could have disappeared from her knife set, and the woman said: “I wouldn’t know.”

Photographs shown of the knife block showed it had space for five knives, but two were missing.

READ MORE: Mum of accused 'puzzled' about him leaving house during the night

When shown a black Nike hoodie, the woman said: “I assume it could be his.”

And quizzed about the jogging bottoms and boxer shorts found on the beach, the woman told the court: “They do look like his.”

Mr McSporran asked the mother if she knew how her son’s clothes may have ended up on the beach.

The woman said: “I’ve not discussed that with him.”

She told the court she heard the boiler go on when her son came home so thought he was having a shower.

The teen returned home for the second time, at 3.52am after seven minutes out of the house.

READ MORE: Girlfriend of Alesha MacPhail's dad denies having sex with accused on night of murder

His mother said: “He said he was out looking for weed.”

Mr McSporran asked if the lad had explained why he had taken a shower and taken his clothes off.

The mother said it “didn’t occur to her”, and he had not given her an explanation other than that he was looking for his phone.

The brief told her that the teen had been out a third time - but the mother claimed she did not know about that.

She said: “I had only watched the bit up until he was wearing his shorts.”

READ MORE: Girlfriend of Alesha MacPhail’s dad ‘had a bad feeling’ when accused called on morning girl disappeared

CCTV filmed at 3.58am showed the boy leaving the house with a torch, wearing shorts and a top as well as footwear.

He jumped over the wall and headed left, towards Ardbeg.

At 4.07am he returned to his mother’s home, still carrying a torch.

When asked by judge Lord Matthews if she wanted to watch the trial continue, she said: "No, I think I won't."

Detective Sergeant Stephen Hendry, 47, from Paisley special investigations unit, was called to give evidence.

READ MORE: Girlfriend of Alesha MacPhail’s father sobs in court as she denies having anything to do with girl’s death

He went to the accused’s house with another detective.

DS Hendry told the court: “The mother had contacted the police in the interest of eliminating her son from the investigation.”

He said the woman had been drinking heavily in the early hours of July 3, and said she wanted to show police CCTV from two cameras - identifying her son leaving the house.

The detective recalled that the mother called her son and he came downstairs and sat on the sofa.

When asked what he had done that morning and why he took a shower, the teen said he had been smoking cannabis and liked to take a shower afterwards.

DS Hendry said: “He gave an explanation and cooperated.”

The detective said the accused’s only questions was would the DNA tests “hurt”.

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