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.
The two men have now been sentenced for what a judge described as their ‘brutal, depraved and wicked’ crime.
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.
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
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.
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’.
O’Brien – who boasted of having several girls on the go at the same time – had been seeing Brand at the same time as Miss Glachan, the court heard – with Brand threatening to ‘batter’ the 14-year-old when she found out.
Jurors previously heard how drug addict O’Brien – 18 at the time – had first met Caroline two months before her death.
He was soon violent towards the schoolgirl and threatened to kill her if she kissed another boy.
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’
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.
Speaking outside court after the three were found guilty last month, Mrs McKeich – standing alongside her husband Willie – 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.’
O’Brien – who was 18 at the time – had always been a prime suspect due to his relationship with Caroline in 1996.
The cold-case murder was re-investigated again in 2020 as part of the Operation Fairing police probe, with witnesses spoken to again and fresh accounts given.
Caroline Glachan’s family waited 27 years for her killers to finally be brought to justice
Andrew Kelly, outside Glasgow’s High Court last month during his murder trial at the end of which he and fellow killers Robert O’Brien and Donna Marie Brand were all found guilty
Brand, also pictured outside the High Court last month, is now due to be sentenced in March
Dr Marjorie Turner, a forensic pathologist, told the trial Caroline was still alive when she went into the water and the ultimate cause of death was drowning.
The teenager had sustained at least 10 blows to the head and extensive skull fractures after being punched, kicked and had bricks thrown at her – as well as suffering other “blunt force” trauma.
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.
He and his brother had been babysat that night by Kelly and his then girlfriend Sarah Jane O’Neill, who has since died, while O’Brien and Brand had also ended up at Archie’s house.
Now in his 30s, Archie was unfit to testify during the trial – but his mother Elizabeth Wilson recalled how her son told her how he had been taken down to the River Leven late that night before witnessing a ‘lassie’ being ‘battered’ and falling into the water.
Miss Wilson had returned home hours after the killing to find Kelly sitting in shorts alone with her children – when he claimed Archie had urinated on him and the carpet.
The child insisted he did not and that it was a ‘wet’ O’Brien who had also been in the house and soaked the floor.
Archie then went on to state he had been taken down the River Leven while apparently being looked after.
Caroline’s family had been unhappy about her relationship with heroin addict boyfriend Robert O’Brien, who was four years older and had been violent towards the schoolgirl
A police diver searching at the spot where Caroline Glachan was found dead 27 years ago
Caroline’s mother Margaret McKeich arriving at Glasgow’s High Court last month
Prosecutor Alex Prentice told the trial about the ‘pivotal’ evidence of a boy named Archie Wilson, who was aged four at the time of the murder
Asked what he said happened, his mum told jurors: ‘He said they were down the Leven, that they were fighting with the lassie, that she ended up falling in and that they had battered the lassie.’
Both Miss Wilson and her son were interviewed in 1996, and the mother was again in 2020 when the case was re-opened.
Miss Wilson admitted she had not wanted her young boy ‘involved’ at the time – but, asked by police what her reaction was when she discovered Caroline had been found in the river, she stated: ‘The blood just kind of drained from my face.
‘I just knew that the story Archie had told us was related to the body.’
