Two jailed for life over murder of Caroline Glachan in 1996
The mother of a teenager murdered 27 years ago has said she is “over the moon” that justice has been done for her daughter as two of the killers were 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 Glachan in August 1996, after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. During the trial the jury heard 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 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 yesterday, with O’brien ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years and Kelly a minimum of 18 years.
Brand was unable to attend the sentencing hearing because she was in hospital with a respiratory infection and will be sentenced in March, the court heard.
Speaking outside the court, Caroline’s mother Margaret Mckeich said: “This is the day that I’ve been waiting for, for 27 years. It was more than what I was hoping for. I’m really, really happy. I’m just sad that the other one is not here to get her comeuppance, but she’ll get it in March.
“Today i couldn’t have wished for more, I am over the moon. It’s not going to bring Caroline back, but it’s justice for her. I don’t know if closure is the right word, but justice has certainly been done.”
Judge Lord Braid described the murder as “brutal, depraved and above all wicked”. He said O’brien was the main perpetrator and used “extreme violence” on the 14-year-old.
The judge said while Kelly played a lesser role, he was also involved in inflicting “murderous violence” on the teenager.
He said: “Caroline was a lover of life but due to both of you, Caroline has been deprived of the opportunity of living that life, becoming an adult, having children, fulfilling the potential she had.
“You have taken a daughter from a loving mother. Mrs Mckeich has spoken of the pain that Caroline’s death has caused.
“She has been deprived of seeing the woman that Caroline would have become. No sentence that I pass could possibly make up for what she has lost.”
Addressing O’brien, Lord Braid said: “Nobody who heard the evidence of the pathologist, Dr Marjorie Turner, could fail to be sickened by her descriptions of the injuries caused by you.”
He said O’brien had arranged to meet Caroline but, when he arrived with Brand, Kelly and two young children they were looking after, she would have realised it was not a “romantic encounter” and they had come “mob-handed” intending to assault her.