Heroin addict boyfriend who murdered schoolgirl jailed for all times

A killer boyfriend and a buddy who lured ‘infatuated’ schoolgirl Caroline Glachan, 14, to a bridge in 1996 earlier than launching a vicious assault with bricks and leaving her for lifeless have been jailed jailed for all times.

Robert O’Brien, 45, Andrew Kelly, 44, and Donna Marie Brand, 44, had been final month discovered responsible of killing O’Brien’s 14-year-old girlfriend Caroline in August 1996, after a trial on the High Court in Glasgow.

During 10 days of proof, the jury heard that O’Brien, Kelly and Brand had organized to fulfill Caroline at a bridge close to the towpath beside the River Leven, between Renton and Bonhill in West Dunbartonshire, on August 25 that 12 months.

They repeatedly punched and kicked her and threw bricks or comparable gadgets at her, inflicting blunt power trauma to her head and physique.

She was pushed or fell into undergrowth and her physique was found within the river at Place of Bonhill, Renton, later the identical day, which was her mom’s fortieth birthday.

O’Brien and Kelly had been jailed for all times once they appeared for sentencing on the High Court in Glasgow at the moment.

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 on the time of the killing, has now been jailed for all times at Glasgow’s High Court – ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years

Fellow assassin Andrew Kelly was additionally given a life time period – with a minimal of 18 years

Brand was unable to attend the sentencing listening to as she was in hospital with a respiratory an infection and shall be sentenced in March, the court docket heard.

O’Brien was ordered to serve a minimal of twenty-two years behind bars whereas Kelly was handed a minimal of 18 years.

Sentencing them, Judge Lord Braid described the homicide as ‘brutal, wicked and above all depraved’.

During the trial, Caroline’s mom Margaret McKeich stated her daughter was ‘infatuated’ with O’Brien however she didn’t approve of the connection as he was a couple of years older.

Mrs McKeich stated her daughter had beforehand disclosed that O’Brien had ‘lifted his fingers to her’.

Caroline’s childhood buddy Joanne Menzies, now 42, advised the court docket that O’Brien had threatened to kill Caroline for ‘kissing one other boy’ and that she had seen O’Brien bully the schoolgirl on multiple event.

Dr Marjorie Turner, a forensic pathologist, advised the court docket the 14-year-old was nonetheless alive when she went into the water and the last word reason for demise was drowning.

Prosecutor Alex Prentice KC stated proof given by a boy named Archie Wilson, who was four-and-a-half years previous on the time of the homicide, in the course of the two-week trial was ‘pivotal’ to the case.

Speaking outdoors court docket after the three had been discovered responsible final month, Mrs McKeich stated it was a ‘nice day’ to see her daughter’s killers convicted.

‘This is a day we by no means thought would occur,’ she stated.

‘It is not going to deliver her again, however a minimum of we all know who was accountable is serving time as a result of, for the final 25 years, they’ve had their Christmases and birthdays, however my Caroline has been within the floor.’