Dramatic footage shows four-year-old’s haunting five-word statement that solved 30-year-old-murder
Dramatic footage has shown the moment a four-year-old gave a haunting five-word statement which solved a murder from almost 30 years before.
The footage was shown in Murder Trial: The Girl In The River, the newest instalment of a BBC documentary that follows different murder trials.
This one followed the case of Caroline Glachan whose body was found on a riverbank in Scotland in 1996. Caroline was just 14 at the time of her death.
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Her murderers, Robert O’Brien, Donna Marie Brand, and Andrew Kelly were found guilty of her murder in 2023 after a trial.
The trio all received life sentences in prison, with O’Brien ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years, while Kelly and Brand have to serve 18 and 17 years respectively.
The footage which helped solve the case was of four-year-old Archie Wilson, whose testimony saved the case.
Wilson was interviewed at the time of the murder as Kelly was babysitting him the night of Caroline’s death.
His testimony was discarded at the time due to his young age and the trio’s stringent alibis, insisting they’d stayed home that night.
The three were suspects as O’Brien, who was an 18-year-old heroin addict at the time, was dating the 14 year-old Caroline, as well as fellow schoolgirl Brand.
When the case was reopened by Scottish Police in 2019 though, the interview and other information gathered related to Archie was sent to a child psychologist.
In the interview, when asked who he saw Caroline hitting her he said: “Robbie.” The man interviewing him follows up by asking what he was hitting her with and Archie said, ‘a metal pole’.
He would later say: “She got hit with a metal pole because there was metal in her eye. I saw it. I closed my eyes when the metal was in her eyes and when she got pushed into the water."
This was corroborated with other evidence when a pathologist’s finding showed injuries consistent with this, something Archie would have had to be there to know.
Speaking in the BBC true crime documentary, lead prosecution lawyer for the trial Alex Prentice KC said: "It is of course a concern that a very young boy is giving evidence in a murder trial and some people might think that a four-year-old boy is not someone who can be relied upon.
“Archie talks about Caroline getting metal in her eye and an injury being caused.
"We heard from the pathologist who illustrated to the jury that there was such an injury. The question would be 'How would he know that?'"
The murder of Caroline by O’Brien was linked during the trial to a horrifying love triangle between the pair and Brand.
The 14-year-old had previously told friends that he had been physically abusive to her, and Brand, a ‘jealous rival’ had previously threatened to ‘batter’ her.
Murder Trial: The Girl In The River is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
Topics: BBC, True Crime, TV and Film, Documentaries, TV, Crime
Michael Slavin