Connor Gibson found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering teenage sister Amber
A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering his 16-year-old sister.
Connor Gibson, 20, was convicted of attacking Amber Gibson in woodland in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, in November 2021.
He removed her clothing, sexually assaulted her with the intention of raping her, inflicted blunt-force trauma to her head and body, and strangled her.
Amber Gibson died in November 2021
Gibson denied the charges but was found guilty after a 13-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Following the verdicts, Judge Lord Mulholland told Gibson: “Your sister – the last person she saw was you strangling her. It was depraved and you will pay a heavy price for that.”
An unrelated man who intimately touched Amber’s body and left his DNA all over her after finding her dead – but didn’t contact police – was also found guilty.
Amber was reported missing on the evening of Friday 26 November and her body was discovered in Cadzow Glen on the morning of 28 November.
Gibson was arrested three days later.
Connor and Amber Gibson on the night of the murder. Pic: Crown Office
Connor and Amber Gibson. Pic: Crown Office
The day before he was detained, he posted a chilling 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.”
A post-mortem of Amber’s body found she was covered in mud and the cause of death was “compression of the neck”.
Connor Gibson walking alone on the night of the murder. Pic: Crown Office
Jurors also heard other 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 her 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.
Amber’s body was discovered in Cadzow Glen in November 2021
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.
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 27 November 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.”
Around 40 seconds later the user messaged Amber 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.
Read more from the trial:
Amber Gibson ‘had injuries consistent with being strangled’
Blood on brother Connor Gibson’s clothes ‘could indicate assault’
Iain Currie, manager of Hillhouse children’s home, told the court he spoke to Gibson at about 9pm on 26 November 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, who the court heard was not known to Gibson, also denied the charge and had lodged a special defence of alibi.
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.
Judge Mulholland told Corrigan he faces a “lengthy sentence”.
The judge deferred sentence until 4 September at Livingston High Court for pleas in mitigation and background reports.
Following the verdict, foster parents Craig and Carol Niven said in a statement: “When they arrived at our home, Amber was three and Connor aged five.
“Connor stated ‘we are safe’. They were until he took the safety away. Amber deserved to live a life of hope and opportunities. As a family, we will never be able to get over how this was taken from her.
“We are relieved the people involved in what happened to her are now behind bars. However, no amount of time will be justice enough for such a young innocent life.”
They described Amber as the “most giving, caring, loving, supportive and admirable person” who had a love of art and singing.
The couple added: “She had the most amazing outlook on life considering the suffering she had experienced.”
They also commented how they had listened to evidence “how much Amber and Connor have been let down throughout their lives by the system”.
The statement added: “As a family, we all feel this could have been prevented. We now have one daughter buried in Larkhall Cemetery and another child in prison. We really miss Amber – life will never be the same.”
The crash involving a cargo ship and oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coast is bad news for the sea, fish and air in the area. What we don’t know yet is quite how bad it will be.
That depends on a few things – but the speed of the collision, clouds of filthy black smoke from the fires and the leaked fuel are certainly worrying.
Firstly, it matters what was on board those two massive vessels.
Follow live: Jet fuel spilling into sea after tanker collision
Analytics firm Vortexa estimates the 183m-long tanker was carrying about 130,000 barrels of jet fuel (kerosene), which is now leaking into the sea.
Jet fuel is not as sticky or viscous as heavier types of oil, thankfully, so it’s less likely to clog the feathers and fur of birds and seals. It can also be broken down by natural bacteria.
But it can still poison fish and kill animals and plants on the shoreline if it makes its way into the soil there.
The Marine Conservation Society has pointed out the site in the Humber estuary is close to some protected areas and is important for seabirds and harbour porpoises.
And both ships will have been powered by a dirtier, heavier kind of oil – likely marine gas oil or heavy fuel oil, though we don’t know the details yet.
Heavy fuel oil is nasty stuff.
Pic: Bartek Smialek/PA
Cheap, thick and tar-like, it can smother animals and is very dangerous if they consume it, and is extremely difficult to clean up. Let’s hope this isn’t creeping around the North Sea already.
We don’t know how much of either the jet fuel or the oil powering the ships has leaked, or how much will be burned off in the violent fires – which themselves are ploughing black smoke and filthy air pollution into the surrounding atmosphere.
And we don’t know for sure what was on the Solong cargo ship and if, or what, will go into the sea.
Cargo ship ‘had sodium cyanide on board’
It was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide among other cargo, according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
The container vessel was also transporting an unknown quantity of alcohol, said the casualty report – an assessment of incidents at sea – citing a message from the local coastguard.
Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, and potentially can choke or trap animals.
Many of us have seen that uncomfortable viral video of a turtle having a straw yanked out of its nose. Previous accidents on cargo ships have seen plastic Lego pieces wash up in Cornwall 25 years later.
Read more:
How UK North Sea platforms dump gas
Secondly, the impact depends on the sea and weather conditions around it.
Things like the wind and currents affect how an oil spill spreads in the sea. Scientists can draw up computer models to simulate how the oil could behave.
Thirdly, it matters how quickly this is all tackled and then cleaned up, if necessary, and if it can be.
Usually the slower the response, the worse the impact.
The coastguard has said the incident “remains ongoing” and it has started assessing the “likely counter pollution response” that will be required.
Such a response might need the help of numerous public bodies: the government environment department, the transport department, the Environment Agency and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
So for now the best we can hope for – aside from the welfare of the people involved – is that not all the oil is spilled or burnt, that conditions are calm and that rescuers and those cleaning up can work swiftly.
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