The mum of murdered schoolgirl Caroline Glachan says her killers “are where they belong” after judges rejected their appeals against conviction.
Speaking almost 29 years after the brutal murder of her daughter, Margaret McKeich said: “It’s finally over. A weight has been lifted.”
Twisted Donna Brand and Andrew Kelly were found guilty of murdering the Bonhill teenager at the River Leven in Renton, West Dunbartonshire, in August, 1996, along with a co-accused Robert O’Brien, following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 2023.
All three were jailed for life and O’Brien was ordered to serve at least 22 years in prison for the crime. Kelly was ordered to serve a minimum period of 18 years and Brand 17 years.
However, Brand and Kelly, both 45, lodged appealed against their convictions, claiming that there was insufficient evidence to support their convictions for the crime. O’Brien was refused leave to pursue an appeal.
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Those appeals were rejected by judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh on Wednesday, leaving Caroline’s shattered family relieved.
Margaret said: “It’s not going to bring Caroline back, but they [Brand and Kelly] are now where they should be.
Caroline Glachan was brutally murdered in August 1996
(Image: Police Scotland)
Home video of murdered school girl Caroline Glachan, from Bonhill, West Dunbartonshire
“They know they did it, they should just take their punishment instead of trying to get away with it.”
Caroline’s death became one of Scotland’s most high-profile and heartbreaking unsolved cases.
Despite extensive enquiries and one arrest over the years, police failed to charge anyone for the murder.
However, 27 years later, in November 2023, Robert O’Brien, Andrew Kelly and Donna Brand stood trial at Glasgow’s High Court accused of her murder.
Speaking to the Lennox Herald after their convictions, Margaret previously said: “They might have been on edge for a while but as time passed they thought they’d got away with it.
“I was so scared to think that all these years had passed and it could be a not proven or an acquittal.
“I was absolutely terrified.
“Sitting and waiting on the verdict was absolutely horrendous.
“When we got the three unanimous verdicts I could hardly take it in.
“I was absolutely delighted. It was more than I was expecting.”
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Margaret opened up on her anguish as she then awaited the outcome of the killers’ appeals, continuing: “You’re sitting waiting again and you have no idea which way it’s going to go.
“You’re afraid of getting too hopeful, you don’t know how somebody else is going to view it.”
Despite her reservations, Margaret said she remained confident that prosecutor Alex Prentice KC would deliver the convictions.
“There’s no more appeals now – that’s it done”, Margaret added.
“It’s finally over. A weight has been lifted.”
Margaret described the almost three-decade-long ordeal as “mentally exhausting”, adding: “They are where they should be now. That’s where they belong.”
Scotland’s senior judge, the Lord Justice General, Lord Carloway, sitting with Lord Matthews and Lord Beckett, said there was evidence that both O’Brien and Brand had previously shown malice towards the victim.
Donna Brand
(Image: PA)
Andrew Kelly
(Image: PA)
He said there was also evidence that Caroline intended to meet up with O’Brien in the vicinity of a bridge over the Leven.
The trio along with a fourth adult and two children left a flat in Renton before the schoolgirl was subjected to the attack, which was seen by a child witness.
Lord Carloway said the attack involved serious violence, including the use of a pole and a stick and boulders being thrown at the teenager.
The senior judge said: “From this evidence the jury would have been entitled to hold, as indeed they did unanimously, that the purpose that all had in going to the scene was to be serious violence against the deceased.”
Lord Carloway said the convictions appeals had to be refused and added: “There was a clear rational basis for the jury’s unanimous verdict.”
He said the sentence imposed on Brand was not considered to be excessive given “her participation in this horrific crime.” The sentence appeal was also refused.
Caroline’s body was discovered face down in the River Leven, in Renton, on August 25, 1996, by a passerby.
A post mortem showed she suffered at least 10 blows to the head and sustained extensive skull fractures.
O’Brien, 46, Brand and Kelly all denied murdering the teenager and claimed they had alibis as they were somewhere else at the time of the crime.
Gordon Jackson KC, for Kelly, said there was forensic evidence presented at the trial that was consistent with rocks being thrown but argued that could not corroborate the evidence of four-year-old Archie Wilson that Kelly threw rocks.
Solicitor Ann Ogg, for Brand, said: “It is my submission there was insufficient evidence that the appellant had actively associated herself with the common criminal purpose, which included the taking of human life.”
Miss Ogg argued that no reasonable jury properly directed by the judge could have returned a guilty verdict in the circumstances of the case.
She said: “I submit the trial judge was correct. The trial judge said you have to find evidence of participation. There was no participation.”
Caroline was repeatedly punched and kicked, and had bricks or similar items thrown 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 Place of Bonhill, Renton, later the same day – which was her mother’s 40th birthday.
During the trial, forensic pathologist Dr Marjorie Turner told the court the 14-year-old was still alive when she went into the water and the ultimate cause of death was drowning.