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How boy, 4, helped solve sick ‘Girl in the River’ murder of Caroline Clachan who was betrayed in sinister love triangle

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CAROLINE Glachan was the schoolgirl who never came home – instead, her violently assaulted body was found face down in the river.

Her murder remained unsolved for almost 30 years and became one of Scotland’s most haunting cold cases.

BBC
Schoolgirl Caroline Glachan never returned home – her body was found face down in a river[/caption]
BBC
Nearly three decades after Caroline’s murder, Robert O’Brien stood accused of the crime[/caption]
BBC
Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand also stood trial for the murder[/caption]

But 27 years on from her shocking death, three people stood accused of her murder in the Scottish High Court in Glasgow.

And with cameras allowed into the country’s courts, a gripping documentary – Murder Trial: Girl in the River – followed every twist and turn of the shocking revelations unfolding at the trial of the accused, Robert O’Brien, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand, as Caroline’s heartbroken family prayed for one last chance of justice.

And the evidence of a four-year-old boy who was present as Caroline met her grisly end would prove crucial.

It was August 25, 1996, when 14-year-old Caroline was brutally killed and dumped in the River Leven, Dumbartonshire.

The original police investigation was hampered by an unwillingness to cooperate with the police and only reopened in 2019. 

Throughout that time, Caroline’s heartbroken mother, Margaret McKeich, kept fighting for the truth about who murdered her only child.

“Hope. Hope is the only thing that I have got, and I hope that I get some kind of justice for Caroline,” says Margaret.

“It’s going to be a hard trial, it’s going to be hard to hear and see things, but I’m going to be there because I feel, as Caroline’s mother, I’ve got to be there.

“I’ve waited long enough for it. I just thought that this was a day that would never come.”

As the jury discovered, Robert ‘Robbie’ O’Brien was 18 years old in 1996 and in a relationship with Caroline.

PA
Caroline’s family had to endure nearly three decades of no justice[/caption]
BBC
Margaret McKeich, Caroline’s heartbroken mother prayed for one last chance at justice[/caption]
BBC
O’Brien was in a relationship with both Caroline and his co-accused, Donna Marie Brand[/caption]

It was something her family were not happy about, with Margaret saying she had questioned Robbie on his motives for being involved with a 14-year-old child.

But worse was to come. He was also seeing his co-accused, Donna Marie Brand, who was pregnant with his child. 

Caroline’s mum Margaret told the court that the night she went missing she and her husband were going out to celebrate her 40th birthday and agreed for the daughter to have pal Joanne Menzies stay over.

But when the couple arrived home, only Joanne was in the house – and she said Caroline had gone out to the other side of town, where Robbie and his friends lived.

Frantic Margaret called around friends and then the police – and the next day detectives gave her the devastating news that they had found Caroline’s body.

The real-life courtroom drama shows distraught Margaret’s tearful reaction as the jurors are showed footage of police divers recovering her daughter’s body from the river.

Speaking to the filmmakers, Margaret says: “That plays a lot on my mind, what were her last moments? Guilt plays a lot on my mind.

“Where was I when she needed me? I’m her mother, but you can’t protect her all of the time. So the logic inside of me says that, but I should’ve been there.”

Lured to her death

PA
Prosecutors believe O’Brien and his friends lured Caroline to her death while babysitting[/caption]
BBC
Witnesses say Brand had told Caroline she would beat her up[/caption]
BBC
Kelly and O’Brien were babysitting a child who gave crucial evidence during the trial[/caption]

In court, the Crown suggested O’Brien and his friends lured Caroline to her death whilst they were babysitting four-year-old local boy ‘Archie’ on that fateful night. 

The defence, meanwhile, argued that the friends never left the house and played no part in Caroline’s murder. 

DCI Stuart Grainger was the SIO on the reopened case and said a lot of the witnesses at the time were reluctant to speak to police.

He said: “You don’t want to be seen as a ‘grass’. When you look at the people who were involved, maybe people were intimidated that if they spoke out that would bring trouble to them.

“I think the original inquiry faced those kinds of barriers, whereas we have come into it years later, times have changed, people have grown up, allegiances have changed.”

Guilt plays a lot on my mind. Where was I when she needed me? I’m her mother, but you can’t protect her all of the time. So the logic inside of me says that, but I should’ve been there

Margaret McKeich

In one shocking twist, a witness revealed that Caroline had told her she too was pregnant with Robbie’s child.

And she also claimed that Donna Brand was furious and told her she was going to ‘batter’ Caroline.

Several of the witnesses in the case had histories of heroin abuse from the time Caroline was murdered – leading the defence to question whether their recollections of events could be relied on.

And the fact that there were three defendants in the harrowing case meant the jury would have a tough time untangling the evidence.

Police felt the fact that Caroline thought she was pregnant, and that Robbie O’Brien believed he had got two girls pregnant at the same time, could have been a catalyst for murder.

But the forensic pathologist who examined Caroline’s body said that she was not pregnant – but had suffered extensive skull fractures and was still alive when she fell in the water, and therefore she drowned.

In another shocking development, Caroline’s best friend Joanne Menzies told the court that Robert O’Brien and Caroline’s relationship had been ‘quite violent’.

She said: “On numerous occasions, I stopped him attacking her. He would attack her, bully her. He would grab her neck and slam her into the wall.”

But O’Brien’s defence claimed another man called George Graham – who was now dead – had confessed to Caroline’s murder.

And again the three defendants banked on their alibi of being in a house together babysitting all night would put them in the clear.

But the prosecution had a vital eye witness – the four-year-old boy called Archie who they had been looking after.

Archie’s mum told the court that she would regularly use Andrew Kelly and his girlfriend Sarah Jane O’Neil, now dead, as babysitters for her children.

On the night Caroline went missing she had asked Kelly and O’Neill to babysit.

When she came home the next day her carpet was wet through and her son told her that they, along with O’Brien and Brand, had taken him down to the river.

Alan MacGregor Ewing
Caroline’s friend Joanne Menzies was the last person to see her alive[/caption]
Alan MacGregor Ewing
Daniel Mullen discovered Caroline’s body in the river[/caption]
News Group Newspapers Ltd
Investigators worked tirelessly to retrieve evidence where Caroline’s body was found[/caption]

And Archie had told her this before she heard about a body being found in the river.

She said: “It was before because when I heard that, that is when I realised my wee’un had been telling me the truth.”

However, the defence questioned her on the timings of Archie’s revelation.

But the police interviewed four-year-old Archie at the time of Caroline’s death – and a chilling film of the interview was shown to the jury.

In the bombshell video the child told police that he, Caroline, Robbie, Andy, Sarah and Sarah-Jane were all at the river.

And he saw Robbie hitting Caroline with a metal pole and that metal went into her eyes – an injury that was later confirmed by pathology.

And Archie said he closed his eyes when Robbie pushed Caroline into the water.

But the defence revealed that two days before the video interview, Archie had been unable to identify someone called Robbie.

And in another interview, Robbie told officers that Andy had thrown boulders at Caroline. So the defence claimed that he was an unreliable witness.

But a neighbour to Archie’s family disputed the defendants’ claims that they didn’t leave the flat all night. 

Linda said she was waiting for a film to start around midnight when she heard voices and saw Sarah-Jane bumping a buggy down the steps with Archie at the side of her, along with Andrew Kelly and another man and woman in front of them.

UK's most prolific killers

  • Harold Shipman – One of the most prolific serial killers in history, the GP is believed to have murdered at least 250 of his patients between 1975 and 1998.
  • Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper) – Murdered 13 women and attempted to kill seven others across Yorkshire and Greater Manchester between 1975 and 1980.
  • Fred and Rose West – The married couple were responsible for the brutal torture and murder of at least 12 young women, including their own daughter, at their home in Gloucester.
  • Jack the Ripper – An unidentified serial killer who terrorized London’s Whitechapel district in 1888, murdering at least five women in gruesome fashion.
  • Dennis Nilsen – Lured and killed at least 15 men between 1978 and 1983 in London, keeping their bodies and dismembering them in his flat.
  • Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (The Moors Murderers) – Killed five children in the 1960s, torturing and burying them on Saddleworth Moor.
  • Beverley Allitt – A nurse who killed four children and attempted to murder nine others in a Lincolnshire hospital in the early 1990s.
  • Stephen Port (The Grindr Killer) – Drugged, raped, and murdered four men between 2014 and 2015 in London, luring them through online dating apps.
  • Levi Bellfield – A serial killer and sex offender convicted of murdering three women, including 13-year-old Milly Dowler in 2002. He is also linked to other violent attacks and suspected murders.
  • 10. Joanna Dennehy – One of the UK’s few female serial killers, Dennehy murdered three men in 2013 in what became known as the “Peterborough ditch murders.” She attacked two more men who survived.

She later heard a commotion and saw the same people coming back to the flat, with the women in distress and some arguing.

The defence argued that their recollection of events had varied from when they were originally interviewed 27 years previously.

All three of the accused could choose to go into the witness box and give evidence – but only Robert O’Brien chose to do so.

He admitted sleeping with 14-year-old Caroline, but denied seeing her at all the evening she went missing, leaving the babysitting house, being violent towards her or having any involvement in her death. 

But in December 2023 O’Brien, Brand and Kelly were convicted of Caroline’s murder.

They were jailed for life. Robert O’Brien must serve at least 22 years in prison and Andrew Kelly will have to serve at least 18 years before they can apply for parole. Donna Marie Brand must serve at least 17 years. 

Judge Lord Braid said O’Brien was the main perpetrator and used “extreme violence” on the teenager.

The judge said while Kelly played a lesser role, he was also involved in inflicting “murderous violence”.

Lord Braid accepted that Brand also played a lesser role in the murder as there was “no evidence” she participated in the assault.

But the judge said she must “bear the consequences” of O’Brien’s actions as she left Caroline lying face down in the water.

Outside court Caroline’s mum Margaret McKeich 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.”

Murder Trial: Girl In The River is a Firecrest Films production for BBC Scotland and BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer.

BBC
Caroline’s heartbroken mother says they have endured Christmases and other milestones without her[/caption]
Les Gallagher
Margaret says she never gave up hope that justice would be served[/caption]
Les Gallagher
After the verdict, Margaret expressed her gratitude outside the courtroom[/caption]



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