Caroline Glachan: How a four-year-old boy helped solve 1996 murder

Archie Wilson was a typical four-year-old with boundless energy, but on Sunday 25 August 1996 he did not wake until lunchtime.

His younger brother Jamie was also sound asleep when their mother returned home to find their babysitter drying his wet trousers on her fire.

Andrew Kelly told Betty Wilson that her eldest son had urinated on him and was also responsible for a large sodden patch on her new carpet.

Something did not add up - but it would be more than two decades before detectives finally uncovered the sinister truth, which has now led to the conviction of three people for Caroline's murder.

They established that Archie and Jamie left the flat in Renton, West Dunbartonshire, at about midnight with four teenagers.

The children returned, less than an hour later, in the company of killers.

Less than a mile away Caroline Glachan, 14, lay face down in the River Leven after suffering multiple head injuries.

The schoolgirl's body was discovered that afternoon, on what was her mother Margaret's 40th birthday.

The names of Robbie O'Brien, Donna Marie Brand, Kelly and his girlfriend, the late Sarah Jane O'Neill, were widely circulated in the village at the time but there was never enough evidence to arrest and charge them.

The main reason was that they all rigidly stuck to the same alibi and told officers they spent the night of the murder in Ms Wilson's flat at 12 Allan Crescent.

Police Scotland's Major Investigation Team started re-examining one of Scotland's most disturbing cold cases in June 2019.

Det Insp Stuart Grainger was appointed as the senior investigating officer and faced a number of challenges.

There was no digital forensic evidence, in the form of phones and computers, and next to no CCTV of value.

Officers had no DNA profile of the suspects and no murder weapon.

As a result the team focused their initial energy on devising a witness management strategy.

They would soon discover that some people who had been questioned at the time were now dead, but others proved more co-operative as they were now parents themselves.

Det Insp Grainger said: "I stripped it right back and took it into sections. One of the first things that we looked at was house-to-house."

In order to test the alibi of O'Brien, Brand and Kelly, detectives began to trace everyone who lived in Allan Crescent in August 1996 - including residents who were children at the time.

Det Insp Grainger said: "Ultimately it led us to a real key witness in this, who was the upstairs neighbour of Betty Wilson.

"When we spoke to Linda Dorrian she said she was in her house that night with her 10-year-old daughter, Emma.

"She was waiting on a film coming on Sky at midnight."

But before it started Ms Dorrian heard a downstairs door opening and looked out into the street.

Det Insp Grainger added: "She said the four of them left that house with the buggy with the two-year-old in it and four-year-old Archie holding on to the buggy."

The group walked down Allan Crescent and crossed Main Street, which connects Renton to Alexandria, and then went towards the River Leven.

Det Insp Grainger said: "That information was not known. That is the first time we have got anybody committing to paper that they were out of the house at that time.

"About half past 12 about half a dozen independent witnesses, who are scattered about, start hearing screams coming from the River Leven.

"It's a female and she is saying: 'I didnae say that. I didnae dae that'."

The next entry in the timeline is about 40 minutes to an hour later, when Ms Dorrian sees the group returning with the children.

Det Insp Grainger said: "The door gets slammed and screaming and shouting starts, along the lines of: 'That wasn't meant to happen. That went too far. How is this going to look?'

"And then they are shouting: 'The weans. The weans'."

Ms Dorrian also hears a female "wailing and sobbing".

Det Insp Grainger said: "That was huge for us and that's what saw us focusing on the four of them."

Asked why this evidence was not gathered in 1996, the senior officer said it appeared that the relevant questions were simply not asked.

Ms Dorrian told the trial at the High Court in Glasgow that she would have co-operated with officers.

Det Insp Grainger said: "It's our job to ask the questions and get that information."

He said another obstacle was that in the late 1990s heroin was "rife" in Renton and the surrounding area and several potential witnesses were criminals themselves who lived chaotic lives.

There was also a culture of fear around the central figure in the case.

The senior officer said: "Robbie O'Brien was from a particular family in that area, a family who had quite a lot of control, and there was a certain element of 'You don't want to speak out'."

Caroline's teenage killers were all drug users who shoplifted to fund their habits.

Robbie O'Brien, who was 18, was in relationship with Donna Marie Brand, 17, who was pregnant at the time of the murder.

He was also seeing 14-year-old Caroline, who was said to be "infatuated" with him.

The relationship started that summer and the couple attended the Oasis concert at Balloch Castle Country Park just three weeks before the murder.

The schoolgirl's mother and friends told the court they disapproved and were aware O'Brien - who was described by police as a "violent bully" - had assaulted Caroline.

Officers established that when Brand went home on a Saturday night, O'Brien would normally arrange to meet Caroline at a bridge over the river.

Det Insp Grainger said: "We know that there was a message passed that day to Robbie to say that Caroline will meet you at the Black Bridge at midnight."

Caroline's best friend, Joanne Menzies, last saw her at the Ladyton shops in Bonhill at about 23:45 on 24 August.

She had invited Joanne and two boys round for a sleepover while her mother was out celebrating her 40th birthday.

But Caroline never joined them and instead made the fateful decision to meet up with O'Brien.

The killers' simple alibi for that night held firm for more than 20 years.

A photofit image was produced of a hooded figure who had been seen walking behind Caroline on the night she disappeared.

The sketch later featured on appeal posters and on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme, but turned out to be a red herring.

While Ms Dorrian's testimony eventually dismantled the killers' alibi, it was the evidence of Archie Wilson that proved critical to the conviction of O'Brien, Brand and Kelly.

When his mother, Betty, returned the morning after the murder she discovered Kelly alone in the house.

When Archie woke up at around lunchtime, hours later than usual, Ms Wilson asked him if he urinated on the carpet. He replied: "No Mummy. Robbie was wet."

Det Insp Grainger said: "He then proceeds to tell her that he was woken up and him and Jamie were taken down to the Leven."

Police interviewed Archie the day after Caroline's body was found and then, after speaking to a child psychologist, were advised to wait for a month.

In the meantime, the boys were taken to Belfast by relatives and re-interviewed there on 26 September.

On this occasion Archie told police he saw Caroline being attacked "down the Leven" and then "in the water".

He said he saw someone called Robbie hit Caroline with a stick and a pole. The boy also told how he closed his eyes when she was pushed in the water.

One detail in particular proved decisive.

Det Insp Grainger said: "He talks about her being hit and having metal in her eye.

"So how does this wee boy know that she has got an eye injury unless he has been there?

"That is really significant for us."

So too is the initial information Archie gave his mother.

Det Insp Grainger said: "What is really significant about that is that he is telling his mum at lunchtime on Sunday 25th, but Caroline's body is not found until 16:10.

"How does he know that a girl has been battered and put into the Leven?"

A post-mortem examination revealed that Caroline suffered at least 10 blows to the head and extensive skull fractures.

The cause of death was head injuries and drowning.

The court also heard she may have been alive but unconscious when she entered the water and that no alcohol or drugs were found in her system.

Asked why Archie's testimony was not taken more seriously at the time, Det Insp Grainger said: "Once Caroline's body was found there were all these massive rumours.

"I think it was thought that the wee boy was just picking up rumours.

"I can't comment on the original investigation, as I don't know what their thinking was then."

The murder of Caroline Glachan is the latest high profile cold case to be solved by Police Scotland since it replaced the old eight-force model in 2013:

One thing was certain - Archie was never the same after what he witnessed.

Det Insp Grainger said: "We spoke to his mother, his auntie and other people and they talked about the total change in the wee boy after that night. He was really withdrawn."

As part of the re-investigation the team sent a child psychologist a package containing everything that had been done with Archie and his relatives.

Det Insp Grainger said: "She came back and said that, in her opinion, that child was experiencing a lived event."

Now in his early 30s, Archie was deemed unfit to give evidence during the trial.

In the years following the murder O'Brien, who went on to have a child with Brand, was jailed for attempted murder and a serious assault.

Detectives eventually arrested O'Brien, Kelly and Brand in November 2021.

The three killers were finally found guilty of Caroline's murder in December after a two-week trial.

O'Brien and Kelly have been ordered to serve at least 22 and 18 years in prison respectively. Brand was unfit to attend court and will be sentenced later.