A woman who with her two friends murdered schoolgirl Caroline Glachan in 1996 and evaded justice for decades has been jailed.
The body of Glachan, 14, was discovered on the banks of the River Leven in Scotland’s West Dunbartonshire.
She had been beaten and pelted with bricks before being shoved into the undergrowth.
Donna Marie Brand, 44, was found guilty in December alongside Robert O’Brien, 45, and Andrew Kelly, 44, of killing Caroline.
Appearing via video uplink, Brand was sentenced to at least 17 years behind bars at Glasgow High Court.
She played no part in the assault, the judge said, but she shares the responsibility for the killing because she left Caroline to die in the water.
Judge Lord Braid said ‘The jury must have accepted that you threatened her as you were angry she was seeing Mr O’Brien when you were in a relationship at the time.
‘You went there knowing violence was to be inflicted on her.
‘While I accept that you played no active part in the assault, the fact remains you share equal responsibility by leaving Caroline face down on the river while she was still alive.
‘Your culpability is mitigated by your age at the time but the harm done is not.
‘To reflect your age at the time and the overall responsibility is less than Mr O’Brien and Mr Kelly, I impose life imprisonment.’
In a case that appalled the country, the body of Caroline was found on August 25, 1996 – her mother’s 40th birthday.
Caroline had met O’Brien, her then 18-year-old boyfriend, at the river’s Black Bridge between Renton and Bonhill.
Alex Prentice KC, prosecuting, told the jury last year: ‘What she was looking forward to turned out to be a horrific and brutal attack.’
She suffered blunt-force trauma to her head and body and was alive when she was thrown into the river.
Caroline’s cause of death was recorded as drowning.
Caroline’s mother Margaret McKeich told jurors that her daughter had disclosed to her that while she was ‘infatuated’ with O’Brien, he had ‘lifted his hands to her’.
Caroline’s childhood friend Joanne Menzies, now 42, added that O’Brien threatened to kill Caroline for ‘kissing another boy’.
Brand, O’Brien and Kelly had long denied wrongdoing but their alibis were discredited after investigators reopened the case in 2019.
Police heard from some 200 people who hadn’t spoken with officers before.
It was testimony from Archie Wilson, who was four-and-a-half years old at the time of the murder, that proved pivotal in the case.
Kelly had been babysitting for the youngster, with Archie telling his mum, Elizabeth, that he had been taken to the river the night Caroline/
Elizabeth, also known by Betty, told jurors: ‘He said they were down the Leven…that they were fighting with the lassie, that she ended up falling in and that they had battered the lassie.’
O’Brien was ordered to serve in January a minimum of 22 years and Kelly 18 years.
Following the trio’s conviction, Detective Inspector Stuart Grainger said: ‘At the heart of this is a mother, a father, extended family and friends who have had to endure years of not knowing who killed Caroline.
‘Their lives changed forever the day Caroline was murdered, they were robbed of having a future with her, watching her grow from a young girl to a young woman.’
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