This is the chilling moment a brother took his 16-year-old sister to a forest where he tried to rape her before strangling her to death.
Connor Gibson, 20, attacked his younger brother Amber in a park in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. He stripped her, hit her repeatedly on the head and fatally strangled her before attempting to rape her.
Jurors heard the siblings were in foster care together, but later lived apart.
Amber was ‘excited’ to meet her older brother on the night of November 26, 2021, before he brutally attacked her in what is believed to be a row.
CCTV from before the attack shows Connor and Amber walking side by side down a sidewalk. Footage from later in the night shows Connor walking home alone – clearly exhausted – before leaning against a fence for a few seconds.
He is later seen leaving his shelter before disposing of the items he was wearing during the attack, including a bloodstained coat that later helped convict him.
Today, the siblings’ foster parents recalled how Connor said ‘we’re safe’ when they first took him and Amber into their care, before adding: ‘They were until he took away safety,’
Connor Gibson is seen walking with his sister Amber to a patch of woodland where he killed her.
Connor Gibson, 20, attacked his sister Amber in a park in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
Amber Gibson (pictured) was found dead in Cadjo Glen, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, on November 28, 2021.
Amber Gibson alongside mother Carol Niven, father, Craig Niven and brother Connor Gibson
Since the murder, CCTV shows Gibson walking down a dark sidewalk
Amber was reported missing on the evening of Friday November 26 and her body was found in Cadjo Glen at 10.10am on November 28.
Earlier, local man Stephen Corrigan, 45, came across the lifeless teenager while out walking. But instead of alerting the police, the pervert touched her inappropriately and then hid her body from view.
Gibson was arrested on December 1 and – the day before her arrest – posted a fake Facebook tribute to her sister, writing: ‘Amber, you will fly high for the rest of your time. We will all miss you. Especially me. i love you ginger GBFN (goodbye for now) x’.
He denied sexually assaulting and murdering Amber but was convicted after a 13-day trial based on a combination of CCTV footage and DNA evidence, including her bloodstained jacket.
Gibson was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murder and attempted rape. Corrigan was convicted of breach of the peace and attempting to defeat the ends of justice. They will be sent to prison in Livingston on September 4.
Local man Stephen Corrigan, 45, found the lifeless teenager while walking. But instead of alerting the police, the pervert touched her inappropriately and then hid her body from view
Amber was last heard from at 9:51 on the night of her murder. She sent a visibly cheeky selfie with Gibson to a friend on Snapchat with the caption ‘My big brother’
Connor Gibson, who was previously living in foster care with his sister
Amber was last heard from at 9:51 on the night of her murder. She sent a visibly cheeky selfie with Gibson to a friend on Snapchat with the caption ‘My big brother’.
Today, Lord Mulholland remanded Gibson and Corrigan in custody after the jury returned its verdict.
Turning first to Gibson, he said: ‘Your sister – the last person she saw you strangled. It was distorted. You will pay dearly for this.’
The judge then told Corrigan: ‘You have been found guilty of two horrific offences. You meet a young girl who was strangled and naked.
‘Instead of changing authority, you manipulated his body and told your DNA story. Don’t be in any confusion that is coming your way.’
Neither showed any emotion as they were handcuffed and taken to their cells.
The children’s foster parents, Craig and Carol Niven, were in court to hear the verdict. In an emotional statement, they said: ‘Amber was three and Connor was five when they came home to us.
‘Connor says: “We’re safe” – they were until he took the safety away. Amber deserves a life of hope and opportunity. As a family, we will never understand how this was taken from him.
‘We are relieved that those involved in what happened to him are now behind bars. However, there will never be enough justice for an innocent life so young.’
The forensic pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination of Amber’s body told the court that she was found lying on the ground and the cause of death was ‘neck compression’.
Jurors also heard other forensic evidence that ‘extensive bloodstains’ on Gibson’s jacket were consistent with the amber and his DNA was also found on his shorts, which were worn as underwear, which had been ‘forcefully torn’.
The court heard Gibson, who also goes by the alias Niven, was not emotional as he spoke to her and Amber’s former foster father, Craig Niven, on the day Amber’s body was found.
Giving evidence, Mr Niven said he would not leave the siblings in each other’s company because they were not a ‘good mix’.
Mr Niven and his wife fostered the siblings since Amber was three and her brother was five. A few years later the couple were taken into permanent care by the siblings.
Foster parents Craig and Carol Niven – seen outside court – took the siblings into their care.
At the time of Amber’s murder, Connor was living at the Blue Triangle Homeless Hostel in Hamilton and Amber was at Hillhouse Children’s Home in the city.
Mr Niven told the court he had not heard from his former foster son at the time of Amber’s disappearance but, in a call on the day her body was discovered, Gibson told him the pair had ‘hit it off’ when they saw each other two days earlier.
Jurors also heard from Peter Benson, of Police Scotland’s cybercrime team, who examined a phone that found where Gibson lived.
It shows that at around 12.34pm on November 27, the phone’s user wrote in a Snapchat group with five recipients: ‘I really need your help when you come back. I am frank.’
The court heard evidence that about 40 seconds later the user messaged Amber Gibson on the app: ‘Are you ok?’
The user then said in the group chat at around 1.33am: ‘NVM (never mind) all good.’
Search history from the phone shows that the user searched for ‘How to get nosy police officers to stop monitoring your phone’ at 11.38pm.
Amber was reported missing on the evening of Friday, November 26 and her body was found at Cadjo Glen (where forensic officers are pictured) at 10.10am on November 28.
Police tape around a sculpture in the park where Amber was found on December 1, 2021
Ian Currie, manager of Hillhouse Children’s Home, told the court he spoke to Gibson at around 9pm on November 26 when he called to speak to his sister, but noted he looked ‘sharp’ on the phone after 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 sometime over the next two days, instead of contacting the emergency services.
Corrigan, who told the court he did not know Gibson, also denied the allegations and filed a special defense of alibi.
His father, William Corrigan, 79, told the court that his son had been at his home in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, that weekend after falling on ice and his hand fell into a sling and denied lying to protect him.
The court heard Corrigan told police he was at a ‘total loss’ as to why his DNA was found on 39 parts of Amber’s body, including her breasts, buttocks and thighs.
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