SENTENCING STATEMENTS

A judge may decide to publish a statement after passing sentence on an offender in cases where there is particular public interest; where a case has legal significance; or where providing the reasons for the decision might assist public understanding.

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HMA v Walter Buchanan

Apr 2, 2025

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Cubie sentenced Walter Buchanan to life imprisonment after the offender was convicted of the murder of Darrel Odhiambo. The punishment part, the time which must be spent in custody, was set at 15 years.

On sentencing, Lord Cubie said:

"Mr Buchanan you were convicted by the jury of the most serious of all crimes, that is, murder.

The victim of your crime was your wife to whom you had been married for six years.

She was younger than you, only 37, so you deprived her of many more years of life. You deprived your wife’s mother and sisters and extended family of her society. I have read from the victim impact statements the feelings of loss which they endure; and you have left her son Jimmy motherless, a further desperate tragedy given Jimmy’s own profound and lifelong needs. Your actions caused have huge upset and huge upheaval for those left behind.

Nothing that I can do or say in court today can lessen the grief and anguish that the members of your late wife’s family must feel.

You are 66 years old. You have one previous conviction which is minor.

You have had a successful professional working life; you have shown you can contribute to and participate in society. It is baffling that you should behave as you did and commit a very serious crime.

Darrel Odhiambo was in the home which you shared where she should have been safe.

The court heard that she sent a message, apparently unhappy that you were out without her; she may have harboured unfair suspicions about with whom and where you were; I emphasise that her actions or words provide no justification, provocation or explanation for what happened. You returned home and there was a verbal and then physical confrontation.

You then assaulted her and, as part of that assault, compressed her neck and restricted her breathing and so caused her death.

You claimed that you thought she had gone back to sleep, and awoke some hours later to find her cold beside you; when you awoke, you did then call the emergency services and you followed instructions to carry out CPR on your wife. But you did not give a proper account to the 999 operator or the paramedics or the police who came to your house. You told the 999 operator that you thought she might have choked You did not mention the physical altercation. You mentioned her drinking; you mentioned her propensity to fall, but failed to mention what you claimed in court - that she had fallen on the stairs.

I infer from these omissions that you had, despite your protestations, realised your role and attempted to deflect the blame by exaggerating her condition and then, in your evidence, speculating how injuries may have been sustained. You claimed that you did not see any connection between what you had done and her death; that was disingenuous and unconvincing. On one level you knew what you had done and what you had caused.

The post mortem described a number of injuries and concluded there had been manual strangulation and smothering.

In convicting you of murder, the jury found that your actions showed that at the time you either intended to kill or were so wickedly reckless as to the consequences of your actions, that it amounted to murder. I have no doubt that you regretted what had happened and that you wish you could turn the clock back, but the jury found your actions at the time to be murderous. And it was revealing that in your evidence you described the events as nightmare for you; you were concerned for the consequences for yourself.

As you have already been told, the sentence for murder is fixed by law. I must now impose that sentence upon you. I sentence you to imprisonment for life.

I must also fix the punishment part of your sentence, being the period which you must spend in prison in full before you can apply to the Parole Board for Scotland for release on licence. You should not assume that you will automatically be released at the end of that period. You will be released only when it is considered that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you continue to be confined in prison.

In fixing the punishment part I have borne in mind the need for punishment for taking your wife’s life. I have taken into account the terms of the revised CJSWR and everything very helpfully said on your behalf by Mr McSporran. And I take into account the material deletions made by the jury in their very discerning verdict.

I accept that you did not plan this in advance; you no doubt expected to continue your comfortable life with Darrel and Jimmy. Although I note that the social worker has some reservations about your understanding, I am prepared to proceed on the basis that you do understand clearly the impact of what you did. You express remorse, as well as some insight, and pose a limited risk of general offending.

I bear in mind your age, and your previously useful role in society. I consider that the appropriate punishment part in your case should be 15 years.

Taking into account the time that you have spent in custody on remand I will backdate the sentence so that it will be deemed to have commenced on 12 March 2024."