Well may you greet.I've been greeting for past 27 years, ..now it's your turn

Mum of cold case murder victim in message to her daughter's killers

- FRASER CLARKE

THE mum of murder victim Caroline Glachan has told how she will visit her daughter's grave on Christmas Day to "properly grieve" following a 27-year fight for justice.

Killers Robert O'Brien, his former girlfriend Donna Marie Brand and accomplice Andrew Kelly were all found guilty last week of attacking 14-year-old Caroline before leaving her to drown in the River Leven, in Dunbartonshire, on August 25, 1996.

The trio had dodged justice for decades after spinning a web of lies to cover up their guilt.

They were finally convicted after Police Scotland launched a major cold case probe into the murder.

Caroline's mum, Margaret McKeich, said she will experience different emotions when she visits her only daughter's grave on Christmas Day, as she does every year, after finally seeing her killers put behind bars.

Margaret said: "I feel I can now go up to the cemetery on Christmas morning with a different feeling that I've not let Caroline down.

"It will be a lighter feeling this time and gives me a chance to properly grieve now. Before it was like being on a treadmill every year. I was always thinking, 'Maybe this year I'll get a phone call'.

"I'm still in a bit of a daze about it all. [The verdicts] was a day that was a long time coming, but a great day. It was fantastic for myself, her dad, and her family and friends." Margaret hit out at the killers over lies they told to cover up their crimes in 1996.

Twisted killer O'Brien, who had been in a relationship with Caroline, claimed in interviews with the Record that she had been stalked by a mystery man with a moustache in the weeks before her murder.

Margaret rubbished the stalker claims and called out the twisted trio.

She said: "That shows how sick they are. They might have been on edge for a while but, as time passed, they thought they had got away with it.