Caroline Glachan: My 27-year wait to face my daughter’s killers

When the trial opened on 27 November 2023, the prosecutor called Margaret as the first witness.

As she stood just yards from the accused, she told the jury that 14-year-old Caroline was “infatuated” with O’Brien, who was 18 at the time.

She said she did not approve of the relationship.

On the night she died Caroline left the home of her best friend, Joanne Menzies, to meet O’Brien by the Black Bridge, which connected Bonhill and Renton.

The teenager planned to be back before her mother returned from a birthday night out, but when Margaret arrived home there was no sign of Caroline.

She told the court: “I sat and waited. I phoned round friends and, ultimately, the police.”

Officers told her the next afternoon they had found a body.

Mr Prentice asked if Margaret had identified her daughter’s body.

Her husband, Allan, and Caroline’s father, William, looked on in the public gallery as a visibly emotional Margaret told the court: “I did.”