Donna Marie Brand to be sentenced for murdering schoolgirl Caroline Glachan 27 years ago

A woman found guilty of murdering a teenager in West Dunbartonshire 27 years ago will be sentenced on Monday.

Donna Marie Brand, 44, was convicted of Caroline Glachan’s murder in December, but she was unable to be sentenced earlier this year as she was in hospital with a respiratory infection.

Robert O’Brien and Andrew Kelly were jailed for life in January after also being found guilty of killing Caroline, who was O’Brien’s girlfriend, close to her home in Renton in August 1996.

Judge Lord Braid told all three they had been found guilty of a “brutal, depraved and above all wicked murder”.

All three, who would all have been teenagers at the time Caroline’s body was discovered on the banks of the River Leven, denied the allegations against them and each lodged a special defence of alibi.

Glasgow & West

Long and painful search for justice finally over for Caroline Glachan’s family

Two men and a woman convicted of the ‘depraved, brutal and wicked’ murder of the schoolgirl 27 years ago.

But a 15-person jury found all three guilty following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

During the trial the jury heard that O’Brien, Kelly and Brand had arranged to meet Caroline at a bridge near the towpath beside the River Leven, between Renton and Bonhill in West Dunbartonshire, on August 25, 1996.

They repeatedly punched and kicked her and threw bricks or similar items 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.

O’Brien and Kelly were jailed for life when they appeared for sentencing at the High Court in Glasgow in January, with O’Brien ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years and Kelly a minimum of 18 years.