A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering his 16-year-old sister.
Connor Gibson, 20, was convicted of attacking his sister Amber in woodland in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, on November 26, 2021, removing her clothes, sexually assaulting with the intention of raping her, inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and body and strangling her.
Gibson denied the charges against him but was found guilty after a 13-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
READ MORE: Family say Amber 'let down' by the authorities
Amber was reported missing on the evening of Friday, November 26 and her body was discovered in Cadzow Glen at about 10.10am on November 28.
Gibson was arrested three days later on December 1 and, the day before his arrest, posted a tribute to the sister he murdered, writing on Facebook: "Amber, you will fly high for the rest of time. We will all miss you. Especially me. I love you ginger midget. GBFN (goodbye for now) X".
The forensic pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on Amber's body told the court she was found covered in mud and the cause of death was "compression of the neck".
Jurors also heard other forensic evidence that "widespread blood staining" on Gibson's jacket was compatible with Amber and his DNA was also found on her shorts, worn as underwear, which had been "forcibly torn" off.
The court heard Gibson, also known by the surname Niven, did not seem emotional as he spoke to his and Amber's former foster father, Craig Niven, on the day Amber's body was found.
Giving evidence, Mr Niven had said he would not leave the siblings in each other's company because they were "not a good mix".
Mr Niven and his wife had fostered the siblings since Amber was three and her brother was five. The couple were granted permanent care of the siblings a few years later.
At the time of Amber's murder, Connor was living at the Blue Triangle homeless hostel in Hamilton while Amber was at the town's Hillhouse children's home.
READ MORE: Blood on brother's clothes 'could indicate assault'
Mr Niven told the court he had not heard from his former foster son during Amber's disappearance but, in a call on the day her body was discovered, Gibson told him the pair had "fallen out" when they saw each other two days previously.
Jurors also heard from Peter Benson, of Police Scotland's cyber crime group, who examined a phone found where Gibson was living.
It showed that on November 27 at about 12.34am, the phone's user wrote to a Snapchat group with five recipients: "I'm really going to need you guys help with something when yous come back. I'm being serious."
The court saw evidence that about 40 seconds later the user messaged Amber Gibson on the app: "Are you ok?"
The user then told the group chat at approximately 1.33am: "nvm (never mind) it's all good."
The search history obtained from the phone also showed the user searched "How to get nosy police officers to stop monitoring your phone" at 11.38pm.
Iain Currie, manager of Hillhouse children's home, told the court he spoke to Gibson at about 9pm on November 26 after he called to speak with his sister, but noted him appearing "sharp" on the phone after making no greeting.
Also on trial was Stephen Corrigan, 45, who was found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by intimately touching and concealing Amber's body after discovering her at some point in the following two days, instead of contacting the emergency services.
Corrigan, said in court not to be known to Gibson, also denied the charge and had lodged a special defence of alibi.
READ MORE: Jury rests to consider verdict in Amber Gibson trial
His father, William Corrigan, 79, told the court his son was at his home in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, that weekend after a fall on ice left his arm in a sling, and denied lying to protect him.
The court heard Corrigan told police he was at a "complete loss" to explain why his DNA was found on 39 areas of Amber's body, including her breasts, buttocks and thighs.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel