Woman who got away with murder for nearly 30 years is jailed for 17 years

Donna Marie Brand and two others beat Caroline Glachan with bricks (Picture: PA)

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 due to be sentenced alongside killers Robert O’Brien, 45, and Andrew Kelly, 44, but was unable to attend court due to sickness.

O’Brien was ordered to serve in January a minimum of 22 years and Kelly 18 years.

Glasgow High Court sentenced Brand to at least 17 years behind bars.

Robbie O’Brien and Andrew Kelly have already been jailed for life (Picture: PA)

In a case that appalled the country, the body of Caroline was found on August 25, 1996 – her mother’s 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.

Brand, O’Brien and Kelly had long denied wrongdoing but their alibis were discredited after investigators reopened the case in 2019.

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