Two ‘depraved’ killers who brutally murdered schoolgirl Caroline Glachan, 14, in 1996 jailed for life
TWO men who brutally murdered schoolgirl Caroline Glachan 27 years ago have been jailed for life - with the third killer to be sentenced in March.
Robert O'Brien, 45, and Andrew Kelly, 44, were last month found guilty of killing O'Brien's 14-year-old girlfriend in August 1996 following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Donna Marie Brand, 44, was also found guilty of the schoolgirl's murder but was unable to be sentenced on Monday as she was in hospital with a respiratory infection and will be sentenced in March, the court heard.
During the 10 days of evidence, 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 of that year.
The trio repeatedly punched and kicked the teenager and threw bricks or other similar items at her, causing blunt force trauma to her head and body.
She was pushed or fell into undergrowth and her body was later discovered in the river at Place of Bonhill, Renton, on August 25 - the day of her mother's 40th birthday.
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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".
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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, the void her death has left that will never be filled.
"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."
During the trial, the court heard from Caroline's mother Margaret McKeich, who said her daughter was "infatuated" with O'Brien but that she did not approve of the relationship as he was a few years older than her.
Mrs McKeich said her daughter had previously disclosed O'Brien had "lifted his hands to her".
Later in the trial, Caroline's childhood friend Joanne Menzies, 42, told the court 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.
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The court heard prosecutor Alex Prentice KC argued that 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.
Her murder had remained unsolved until cold case detectives reopened a probe and charged the three suspects in 2021.