A killer boyfriend and a friend who lured ‘infatuated’ schoolgirl Caroline Glachan, 14, to a bridge in 1996 before launching a vicious assault with bricks and leaving her for dead have been jailed jailed for life.
Robert O’Brien, 45, Andrew Kelly, 44, and Donna Marie Brand, 44, were last month found guilty of killing O’Brien’s 14-year-old girlfriend Caroline in August 1996, after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
During 10 days of evidence, the jury heard that O’Brien, Kelly and Brand had arranged to meet Caroline at a bridge near the towpath beside the River Leven, between Renton and Bonhill in West Dunbartonshire, on August 25 that year.
They repeatedly punched and kicked her and threw bricks or similar items at her, causing blunt force trauma to her head and body.
She was pushed or fell into undergrowth and her body was discovered in the river at Place of Bonhill, Renton, later the same day, which was her mother’s 40th birthday.
O’Brien and Kelly were jailed for life when they appeared for sentencing at the High Court in Glasgow today.
Caroline Glachan, 14, was murdered in August 1996 by the River Leven in West Dunbartonshire
Robert O’Brien, who was Caroline’s heroin addict boyfriend at the time of the killing, has now been jailed for life at Glasgow’s High Court – ordered to serve at least 22 years
Fellow murderer Andrew Kelly was also given a life term – with a minimum of 18 years
Brand was unable to attend the sentencing hearing as she was in hospital with a respiratory infection and will be sentenced in March, the court heard.
O’Brien was ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years behind bars while Kelly was handed a minimum of 18 years.
Sentencing them, Judge Lord Braid described the murder as ‘brutal, depraved and above all wicked’.
During the trial, Caroline’s mother Margaret McKeich said her daughter was ‘infatuated’ with O’Brien but she did not approve of the relationship as he was a few years older.
Mrs McKeich said her daughter had previously disclosed that O’Brien had ‘lifted his hands to her’.
Caroline’s childhood friend Joanne Menzies, now 42, told the court that O’Brien had threatened to kill Caroline for ‘kissing another boy’ and that she had seen O’Brien bully the schoolgirl on more than one occasion.
Dr Marjorie Turner, a forensic pathologist, told the court the 14-year-old was still alive when she went into the water and the ultimate cause of death was drowning.
Prosecutor Alex Prentice KC said evidence given by a boy named Archie Wilson, who was four-and-a-half years old at the time of the murder, during the two-week trial was ‘pivotal’ to the case.
Donna Brand, also found guilty last month of Caroline’s murder, was unable to be sentenced today because she was in hospital with a respiratory infection, the court heard
Caroline, said to have been ‘infatuated’ with O#’Brien, was found dead in Renton’s River Leven
Her mother Margaret McKeith, speaking outside Glasgow’s High Court last month after Caroline’s murderers were found guilty, welcomed the convictions as a ‘great day’
Speaking outside court after the three were found guilty last month, Mrs McKeich said it was a ‘great day’ to see her daughter’s killers convicted.
‘This is a day we never thought would happen,’ she said.
‘It will not bring her back, but at least we know who was responsible is serving time because, for the last 25 years, they’ve had their Christmases and birthdays, but my Caroline has been in the ground.’