Former doctor from Camelon guilty of indecently assaulting Stirling Uni students

David Allan Buchan, known as Allan Buchan, now 63, was a founder partner of the Aithrey Park medical practice at the University of Stirling where he molested the 20-year-old undergraduates between 1995 and 1998.

The verdicts, at Stirling Sheriff Court on Thursday, March 28, came after a three day trial during which jurors heard Buchan ordered several young males to drop their pants and touched and "caressed" their private parts and inner thighs when they came to see him for unrelated complaints.

The verdicts mark Buchan as a serial medical sex offender, The Glasgow-trained GP, who was struck off in 2002, was jailed for 30 months in 2001 after being found guilty of five sexual assaults on three other young male students at the university around the same time in almost identical circumstances.

Sheriff John MacRitchie remanded him in custody for reports, and told him that the earlier conviction was "a huge aggravation" in terms of the sentence he could expect for the latest offences.

The court heard evidence from five men who were students at the university in the 1990s, some of them teenagers at the time in their first year, who said they had gone to Buchan with knee pain, shoulder pain, sinusitis, sore throats and a footballing injury and all ended up receiving intimate examinations that they had not requested.

Buchan rarely used rubber gloves. The prosecution said this was because he "liked the intimate physical contact" he got from not wearing them.

One of the two victims Buchan was found to have indecently assaulted – now a doctor himself – gave evidence of being diagnosed as a 20-year-old student in 1997 with kidney stones by Buchan, who then proceeded to "treat" the complaint by massaging the underside of his penis for up to 20 minutes.

Buchan then told him to return to his surgery at 10pm, where he massaged him intimately for another 35 to 40 minutes.

Accepted treatment at the time was surgery.

The man, who gave evidence by video link from Australia, said he had first disclosed what had happened when he was a medical student in 2006.

He reported the matter to police in 2016. The jury, by majority, convicted Buchan of indecently assaulting the man.

Another former undergraduate said Buchan had "grabbed" his testicles and asked him to remove his underpants when he went to see him with a sore knee.

The jury, by majority, convicted Buchan of indecently assaulting him also.

A charge of indecently assaulting a third student patient was found not proven, and two more ex-students gave evidence for corroboration purposes that Buchan had touched them inappropriately in his surgery.

Prosecutor James Moncrieff said Buchan had cleverly manipulated his patients, clouding what he had done with medical knowledge and using legitimate medical examinations to normalise subsequent actions.

Mr Moncrieff said: "He abused his position as a doctor and took advantage of these young men for his own sexual gratification."

He added most of Buchan's victims had not realised the significance of what had happened to them until they had grown up and matured.

Buchan, of Camelon, who worked on the university campus for eight years and was also club doctor for East Stirlingshire FC, denied the indecent assaults and labelled his accusers "liars" and "fantasists".

He showed no emotion when the verdicts were delivered, but his two grown-up children, who had supported him throughout the trial, wept on the public benches.

Sentence was deferred until May 8 for reports, bail was revoked, and Buchan was again placed on the sex offenders register.

Buchan's counsel, Colin Neilson, advocate, reserved mitigation, but added: "Clearly Your Lordship will be considering a custodial sentence."