June 2022 Serial child rapist handed life sentence as 12th victim comes forward A paedophile jailed for attacking 11 children during a 21-year campaign of rapes and sexual abuse has been given a life sentence after another young victim came forward. Michael Buchanan was jailed for nine years in January 2017 for a string of sex attacks against youngsters when they were aged between six and ten years old. However, judge Lord Beckett heard at the High Court in Edinburgh last year how another victim came forward after the 51-year-old was jailed. During that hearing prosecutor Adrian Stalker said the man told officers how Buchanan subjected him to a series of sexual assaults at a location in Edinburgh. The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said the abuse began in 1990 when he was aged four years old and continued for three years. And he told police how Buchanan’s behaviour has caused him to have life long trauma. Mr Stalker said: “The complainer has stated that the abuse has had a profound effect on his mental health. “He has expressed anger at what has been done to him.” The story emerged after Buchanan, originally of Wester Hailes, Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to a charge of subjecting the man to a series of lewd and libidinous practices against between May 1990 and May 1993. Lord Beckett said Buchanan’s background report, which was written by court appointed social worker, contained “concerning information” about his attitudes towards offending. The Judge further stated that he wanted to ensure that “the public is protected from serious harm from you on your release.” Buchanan was put on an order of lifelong restriction at Tuesday sentencing with a punishment part of three-and-a-half years imprisonment. At proceedings in 2017, a judge at the High Court in Glasgow heard how Buchanan’s campaign of physical and sexual violence spanned between 1982 and 2003. He preyed on his mostly young victims at a number of addresses in Edinburgh – mainly in the Wester Hailes area. A six-year-old boy was first targeted before Buchanan molested a ten-year-old girl as she slept. Around 1991, he then abused a nine year-old girl in her bedroom. The court heard this involved him pinning down the frightened child, who tried to fight him off. She managed to escape his clutches, but it was years later, when she was aged around 12, before she told a friend what happened. The youngster then went to police in May 1993. But no action was taken against Buchanan and the victim took her own life in 1998. Buchanan meantime subjected another girl to a horrendous ordeal. He abused her for four years from the age of ten. Buchanan eventually raped the girl when she was 13 – including a time when he tied her to a radiator to rape her Her ordeal ended when she was 14. His next young victim was first attacked after he gave her 20p. The child, who was aged between six and ten, was abused at a canal after Buchanan claimed they were going “fishing”. Buchanan went on to molest a six year-old boy and then attacked two girls who had gone to his home. The paedophile then raped a six year-old girl while supposedly babysitting her. His final victim was regularly abused when she was between the ages of nine and 13. Advocate depute Mr Stalker told Lord Beckett last year how the man came forward to the police following Buchanan’s convictions. March 2017 Serial child abuser raped girl he strapped to radiator A serial child abuser who tied a girl to a radiator and raped her has been jailed for nine years. Michael Buchanan, 46, was first reported to police as a predator more then two decades ago but remained at large. The child victim who initially revealed his actions never lived to see him being brought to justice as she committed suicide in 1998 while Buchanan went on to commit further crimes. A judge told Buchanan: “You pled guilty to 16 charges involving 13 victims, 12 of them children, spanning a period of 21 years.” Lord Boyd of Duncansby pointed out that the child victims of his crimes were aged between four and five and 14 and that the most serious offences were the rapes of girls aged six and 13. The judge said at the High Court in Edinburgh: “I take into account that the first three charges were committed when you yourself were a child.” Lord Boyd said a background report on Buchanan had assessed him as a high risk of re-offending, but added that was tempered by his offending coming to an end 14 years ago. The judge ordered that Buchanan, formerly of Murrayburn Place, should be kept under supervision for a further five years. Buchanan was aged 12 when he targeted his first victim whom he abused from the age of six until he was nine, molesting the boy at addresses in Wester Hailes. The victim did not tell anyone at the time what was happening to him. He later invited a nine-year-old girl back to his family home about 1990 or 1991 to visit his mother but attacked her. She was scared and did not tell anyone at the time but after revealing what had happened to a friend when she was about 12 she was encouraged to contact the police. She gave a statement and Buchanan was detained in 1993 and interviewed but no action was taken at the time. She committed suicide in 1998. Buchanan subjected another youngster to a catalogue of physical and sexual abuse and raped her on two occasions when she was aged 13. The sex offender was looking after a six-year-old girl and her sister about 2002 when he raped her at a house in Edinburgh. The terrified victim managed to escape from her attacker and found her sister and fled before contacting social services. But when she was interviewed by police she did not speak to the initial allegations she made. In 2014 a male victim of Buchanan went to a police station to report that he had been abused by him. A search of a database revealed previous complaints and steps were taken to trace others. Defence counsel Matt Jackson said Buchanan had spoken about “what he calls his inner monster” –the person he felt was responsible. “He recognises he has sexual impulses which are abhorrent and disgusting to right-minded people,” said the defence counsel. Buchanan was placed on the sex offenders’ register.