"It's a real problem."

But when the schoolgirl's funeral was eventually held near her home in Bonhill, West Dunbartonshire, the teenage culprits were still at large.The names of the prime suspects were widely circulated in the local community at the time but it would be almost three decades until they appeared before a jury.

A new two-part BBC documentary,, was allowed rare access to film the final chapter in one of Scotland's most high-profile cold cases.It captured key moments inside the High Court in Glasgow - from the video testimony of a four-year-old boy who

to the dramatic verdict.Caroline's mother Margaret attended court throughout the two-week trial.

She told the programme: "I feel I have to be there every day and I feel I have to look them in the face."

During an interview in his office, prosecutor Alex Prentice KC revealed that the case was stronger now than it was in the 1990s thanks to fresh witness testimony.Israel's retaliation against its enemies has created a new landscape in the Middle East, with Iran very much on the back foot.

"All the dominoes have been falling," says James Jeffrey, a former US diplomat and deputy national security advisor, who now works at the non-partisan Wilson Center think-tank."The Iranian Axis of Resistance has been smashed by Israel, and now blown up by events in Syria. Iran is left with no real proxy in the region other than the Houthis in Yemen."

Iran does still back powerful militias in neighbouring Iraq. But according to Mr Jeffrey: "This is a totally unprecedented collapse of a regional hegemon."The last public sighting of Assad was in a meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister, on 1 December, when he vowed to "crush" the rebels advancing on the Syrian capital. The Kremlin has said he is now in Russia after fleeing the country.