Aaron Campbell, the teenager who abducted, raped and murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail on the Isle of Bute last July, has lodged an appeal against his prison sentence.

Campbell was sentenced last month to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 27 years after he was found guilty following a two-week trial.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service confirmed on Thursday that Campbell had lodged a note of appeal against sentence.

Campbell, 16, denied any involvement in the offences during his trial but admitted to his crimes when interviewed for psychological reports prepared ahead of his sentencing.

Sentencing, Lord Matthews said the reports “had painted a clear picture of a cold, callous, calculating, remorseless and dangerous individual”. The judge added that, in setting the term of 27 years, necessarily shorter than if Campbell had been an adult, it was clear to him that “reintegration or rehabilitation are remote possibilities”.

During the trial, the jury heard Campbell took Alesha from her bed in the seafront flat where she was staying with her father and grandparents, using a knife to silence her, and carried the child to the nearby grounds of a disused hotel where he raped and smothered her.

Alesha, from Airdrie in North Lanarkshire, had arrived on the island a few days earlier for a three-week summer break.

The pathologist who examined Alesha’s body told the court the girl had sustained “catastrophic” injuries, some of which he concluded had been inflicted while she was still alive.