JUSTICE: Three found guilty of murdering schoolgirl Caroline Glachan 27 years ago

Robert O’Brien, 45, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand, both 44, brutally killed Caroline Glachan on the towpath at the Black Bridge over the swift-flowing river between Bonhill and Renton in 1996.

She had suffered blunt trauma to the head and drowned.

The three accused, who would all have been teenagers at the time Caroline’s body was discovered and pulled from the river by police officers, denied the allegations against them and each lodged a special defence of alibi.

But the 15-person jury found all three guilty following a trial in the High Court at Glasgow.

Judge Lord Braid told all three they had been found guilty of a “brutal, depraved and above all wicked murder”.

All three will be given a mandatory life sentence, but the judge will then decide how much time beyond that they will have to serve in prison.

The Black Bridge between Bonhill and Renton where Caroline was murdered.

Prosecution witnesses said the three accused arranged to meet the teenager at a bridge near a towpath beside the river which runs from Loch Lomond to Dumbarton.

They then assaulted Caroline, a pupil at Notre Dame High School (now Our Lady and St Patrick’s in Bellsmyre, Dumbarton), shouted and swore at her and repeatedly kicked and punched her on the head and body.

The disinhibited trio, at least one of whom was possibly on drugs,  threw bricks or “similar instruments” causing blunt force injuries to her head and body, before pushing or causing her to fall into the river, and ultimately murdered her.

The jury and judge, Lord Braid, heard how O’Brien had been in a relationship with Caroline at the time. He was around four years older.

The teenager was said to have left her best friend that night to go and see O’Brien, who was known as Robbie.

Advocate Depute Alex Prentice KC told jurors: “Caroline Glachan was an excited 14-year-old girl wanting to meet 18-year-old Robbie O’Brien on the Black Bridge at the River Leven.

“She was looking forward to meeting him.

“What she was looking forward to turned out to be a horrific and brutal attack and (she was) left to drown in the River Leven.”

Mr Prentice said the evidence in the two week trial – both direct and indirect – presented a “compelling and convincing case” against the three accused.

Mr Prentice: “The Crown case is that Robert O’Brien attacked Caroline with a blunt instrument and inflicted the ten or so blows causing her to fall in the water and to drown.

“He is guilty of murder, nothing less.”

Caroline Glachan and the three who murdered her (left to right) Andrew Kelly, Robbie O’Brien and Donna Brand, all from Vale of Leven.  Pictures by The Scottish SUN.

During the trial, the court heard from Caroline’s mother Margaret McKeich, who said her daughter was “infatuated” with O’Brien, who then went on to murder her.

Mrs McKeich said her daughter had previously disclosed O’Brien had “lifted his hands to her”.

Mrs McKeich said she did not approve of her daughter’s relationship with O’Brien, known as Robbie, as he was a few years older than her.

Her daughter’s body was discovered on the day of Margaret McKeich’s 40th birthday and that on arriving home from celebrations in the early hours of the morning, she realised Caroline was not at home.

Later, she received the news that Caroline’s body had been found the following day, on August 25.

During the trial, Caroline Glachan’s childhood friend, Joanne Menzies, 42, told the jury that  O’Brien had threatened to kill the schoolgirl for “kissing another boy”, and that she had seen O’Brien bully Caroline on more than one occasion.

Caroline Glachan was a child of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, where her father, Willie Glachan, from Vale of Leven, was serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

Caroline was born in Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry/Londonderry and was just 2lbs, the weight of a bag of sugar, at her birth to her mother, Margaret.

The baby Caroline fought a courageous battle for her life in hospital and won.

When he parents returned to Scotland, she went to school locally and at the old OLSP school in Cardross Road, Dumbarton.

She was a popular teenager as the huge attendance of schoolmates at her funeral Mass at St Ronan’s Church, celebrated by the parish priest, Father John Sheary, clearly demonstrated.

Local police officers investigated the murder and there was wide speculation in Renton, a close knit community, as to who had murdered Caroline.

It was put around at one time that the murder had been committed by a drug addict, a young local man  who had since died.

However, Police Scotland re-opened the case earlier this year and made a number of public appeals, including one with Margaret McKeich, for anyone with information to come forward.

It was only then – after a heart-breaking and stressful 27 years of waiting for Margaret, that the three people found guilty today were arrested and remanded in jail until the case against them was brought to the High Court.

Margaret McKeich said after the case that she was content that a conclusion had been reached at last after so many years.

She said that while the three murderers of her daughter had led normal lives for 25 years afterwards attending celebratory events — ” For 25 years these people have had their Christmases and the birthdays while my Caroline has been in the ground.”

Margaret thanked the police for their hard working in bringing the case to court and the local people who had given evidence.