Sick rapist whose vile attacks began when he was just 12 shared tribute to tragic Alesha MacPhail

A PAEDOPHILE who began raping children on his 12th birthday paid tribute to murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail, it has emerged.

Kristofer Johnstone, now 33, preyed on two girls in a 15-year campaign of abuse.

He struck between his 12th birthday on February 28, 2003 and 2018

Alesha, of Airdrie, was raped and murdered by fiend Aaron Campbell

Alesha was staying with family on a holiday to Rothesay, Bute, in July 2018

A picture of him holding a heart-shaped balloon in memory of Alesha was shared

And in a horrifying twist, a picture of him holding a heart-shaped balloon in memory of tragic Alesha was shared online before he was unmasked as a beast.

Alesha, of Airdrie, was raped and murdered by fiend Aaron Campbell, then 16, who abducted her as she visited her grandparents and dad on Bute in 2018.

Johnstone, of Kelloholm, Dumfriesshire, was convicted after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow of abusing the children — aged between five and 11.

He struck between his 12th birthday on February 28, 2003 and 2018, in Glasgow’s Knightswood, nearby Maryhill, Paisley and on the Isle of Bute.

Caging the married dad of two for ten years this month, judge Alasdair MacFadyen said: “The evidence of sexual abuse was overwhelming, alarming and distressing.

“As a teenager and an adult, you committed serious offences against young children. Your actions appeared motivated by your deviant sexual desires.”

He was also put on the sex offenders register indefinitely and banned from contacting both his victims.

Monster Campbell, now 21, of Bute, was jailed for at least 27 years, cut to 24 on appeal, in 2019.

We told how he struck up a warped pen pal relationship with a caged sex offender.

He rarely leaves his cell for fear of attacks by fellow cons sickened by his crimes.

He was brutally beaten in 2022 in his cell at Polmont Young Offenders.