My 27-year wait to face my daughter’s killers | UK News

Margaret McKeich turned 40 on the day her only child was found murdered on the banks of a river near Loch Lomond – but it was 27 years before she was able to face her daughter’s killers in court.

The body of Caroline Glachan, who was 14 when her life was taken, lay in a morgue for six months as detectives struggled to secure a breakthrough.

But when the schoolgirl’s funeral was eventually held near her home in Bonhill, West Dunbartonshire, the teenage culprits were still at large.

The names of the prime suspects were widely circulated in the local community at the time but it would be almost three decades until they appeared before a jury.

A new two-part documentary, Murder Trial: Girl in the River, was allowed rare access to film the final chapter in one of Scotland’s most high-profile cold cases.

It captured key moments inside the High Court in Glasgow – from the video testimony of a four-year-old boy who witnessed the fatal attack to the dramatic verdict.

Caroline’s mother Margaret attended court throughout the two-week trial.

She told the programme: “I feel I have to be there every day and I feel I have to look them in the face.”

During an interview in his office, prosecutor Alex Prentice KC revealed that the case was stronger now than it was in the 1990s thanks to fresh witness testimony.

The new evidence was uncovered following a re-examination of the case by Police Scotland’s major investigation team, which was launched in 2019.

It resulted in the arrests of Robert O’Brien, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand in November 2021.

All three, together with the late Sarah Jane O’Neill, were suspects in 1996 but there was never enough evidence to arrest and charge them.

The main reason was that they all rigidly stuck to the same alibi and told officers they spent the night of the murder in a flat in Allan Crescent, Renton – less than a mile from where Caroline’s body was found.

The original inquiry was also hampered by a culture of fear about speaking out, especially as O’Brien’s family had what police described as a “a lot of control” in the area.

When the trial opened on 27 November 2023, the prosecutor called Margaret as the first witness.

As she stood just yards from the accused, she told the jury that 14-year-old Caroline was “infatuated” with O’Brien, who was 18 at the time.

She said she did not approve of the relationship.

On the night she died Caroline had invited her best friend, Joanne Menzies, to a sleepover at her home.

But she later left to meet O’Brien by the Black Bridge, which connected Bonhill and Renton.

The teenager planned to be back before her mother returned from a birthday night out, but when Margaret arrived home there was no sign of Caroline.

She told the court: “I sat and waited. I phoned round friends and, ultimately, the police.”

Officers told her the next afternoon they had found a body on the banks of the Leven in Renton.

Mr Prentice asked if Margaret formally identified her daughter.

Her husband, Allan, and Caroline’s father, William, looked on in the public gallery as a visibly emotional Margaret told the court: “I did.”

Speaking in her home, Margaret later told how the teenager brightened up her life after a series of miscarriages.

“I lost five before I had Caroline,” she said.

“She was special in a lot of ways.”

The former shop worker also admitted even happy moments were tinged with sadness due to the enormity of her loss.

The documentary shows the testimony of a police diver, which included disturbing video footage of Caroline’s body in the river.

Pathologist Dr Marjorie Turner told the jury the victim sustained “extreme fractures to the skull” after being struck with a weapon.

“She was still alive when she was in the water,” the expert said.

Mr Prentice told the programme the person who inflicted those injuries was not solely responsible for Caroline’s death.

“They all left her,” he said.

“No-one thought to take her out of the water and assist her.”

The most chilling evidence in the trial came from a video interview with Archie Wilson, who was just four at the time of the murder.

On the night Caroline died, Archie and his two-year-old brother were with their “babysitters”, Andrew Kelly and his girlfriend Sarah Jane O’Neill – who died in 2019.

A month after the murder, the four-year-old told police that “Robbie” hit Caroline with a pole “down the Leven”.

The boy confirmed it was dark and added: “They have no street lights down there.”

Later in the interview he recalled there was “metal in her eye”, a sensitive detail detectives said could only have been known through a lived experience.

The child witness then told the officers: “When she was pushed in the water I closed my eyes.”

Mr Prentice admitted he was surprised more was not made of the interview at the time but he suspected there was not enough additional evidence to build a prosecution case.

The documentary also featured the vital new evidence of Linda Dorrian, who lived in the flat above Archie’s mother.

She was waiting on a film to start on Sky at midnight when she saw the three accused and O’Neill leave the flat.

They were pushing a buggy and Archie was holding on to the side.

This is the first time that anyone testified the group were out of the flat when Caroline was killed.

When they returned about an hour later, Ms Dorrian heard a commotion and “wailing” which frightened her 10-year-old daughter.

She also recalled hearing O’Neill say: “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”

Ms Dorrian’s daughter, Emma McGinlay, told the jury she was alarmed by the disturbance.

When asked if she could have been mistaken, she replied: “I remember. That night haunts me. And I don’t forget something like that.”

When the defence case got under way O’Brien, then 45, decided to give evidence.

He told the jury he had sex with Caroline, despite the fact she was four years younger than him and a minor.

He said they had what he described as a “friends with benefits” relationship for about a month-and-a-half before her murder.

Margaret shook her head as he spoke and afterwards branded his comment “absolutely disgusting”.

She told the programme: “I feel physically sick looking at him.

“That is hard to listen to and not to be able to say to him: ‘How dare you?’.”

After a fortnight of evidence and then closing speeches, the 15-member jury was sent out to consider its verdict.

The deliberations continued for three days before the court reconvened and the forewoman delivered three unanimous guilty verdicts.

O’Brien looked stunned and shook his head.

Kelly and Brand were less animated but also reacted with disbelief.

In the public gallery Margaret removed her glasses and wiped away tears.

The judge, Lord Braid, told the killers: “You have all been convicted of what can only be described as a brutal, depraved and, above all, wicked murder.”

He then deferred sentence for criminal justice social work reports.

When the court adjourned Margaret hugged Mr Prentice in a waiting room and told the prosecutor: “I could not have wished for a better verdict”.

She added: “I will love this man forever.”

Outside she told reporters the verdict would not bring her daughter back but at least those responsible were behind bars.

She said: “For the past 25 years they have lived their lives and they have had their Christmases and birthdays and my Caroline was in the ground.

“This is a day we never thought we would see and now I think Caroline can rest in peace.”

In January last year, O’Brien and Kelly returned to the dock and were sentenced to 22 years and 18 years respectively.

Brand, who missed the hearing through illness, was jailed for 17 years in April.

Margaret’s long wait for justice was over but the pain of her loss is never far away.

She told the documentary: “Folk say time is a healer. Time is not a healer.

“There is an emptiness there that is never going to be filled. Ever.”