Pair found guilty of murdering schoolgirl Caroline Glachan lose appeal against conviction

Two killers who took part in the horrific murder of a teenage girl almost 30 years ago lost appeals against their convictions after claiming they suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Donna Brand and Andrew Kelly were found guilty of murdering 14-year-old Caroline Glachan 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 of 18 years and Brand 17 years.

Brand and Kelly, both 45, 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.

But judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh refused their conviction appeals and also rejected a challenge by Brand against the length of the minimum term of imprisonment imposed on her.

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.

He said there was also evidence that the deceased 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 victim was subjected to the attack, which was seen by a child witness.

Lord Carloway said the attack on the deceased 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.

The killers were all teenagers at the time they launched the brutal assault on Caroline from Bonhill, in Dunbartonshire.

Her body was discovered face down in the river 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.”

Ms 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.”