EDINBURGH MAN GUILTY OF HISTORIC RAPE AND ABUSE
A depraved Edinburgh man has been convicted of carrying out a horrific sexual attack on a victim who he preyed on in the back of a van at a local beach.Paul Kernachan stood trial at the High Court of Edinburgh this week where a jury found him guilty of rape and also three counts of indecent behaviour towards a second victim aged between 12 and 16.
The 59-year-old committed the sickening crimes between 1993 to 1999.
Between January 1, 1993 and December 23, 1994, Kernachan raped a woman within a van parked at a wooded area near Silverknowes Beach in Edinburgh.
Kernachan seized the woman by the body, pushed her into a van, pushed her to the floor, removed her lower clothing, seized hold of her head and subjected her to the horrific assault.
Following the ordeal Kernachan also "uttered threats" towards her.
Kernachan was also found guilty of three charges of indecent behaviour towards a second victim, a teenage girl between the age of 12 and 16, spanning from 1997 to 1999.
On Christmas Day in 1997, he was found to have touched her inappropriately at a property on Muirhouse Drive.
A separate incident of abuse involving the same teen took place at Silverknowes Beach between May 28, 1998 and May 27, 1999 as Kernachan went on to abuse her for a third time within the same timeframe at a property on Muirhouse Drive.
Kernachan is set to be sentenced in due course in Edinburgh.
—————————————————————————————————— EDINBURGH DOUBLE LIFE SHOCK: MAN LINKED TO ABUSE MEMOIR AUTHOR JAILED FOR BEACH RAPE ——————————————————————————————————- A man once associated with a high-profile survivor of childhood abuse has been sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of raping a young woman near an Edinburgh beach.
Paul Kernachan, 59, formerly of Braid Hills Road, was found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh of taking part in a serious sexual assault in the early 1990s.
The court heard the woman was driven in a van to a wooded area close to Silverknowes Beach, where she was forced into the back of the vehicle and attacked by two men.
Prosecutors said the victim was overpowered and subjected to oral and vaginal rape.
The assault, the court was told, was carried out against her will and for the men’s sexual gratification.
Kernachan denied the charge at trial but was convicted of the offence, which took place between January 1993 and December 1994.
He was also convicted of separate sexual offences involving a teenage girl in Edinburgh’s Muirhouse area in 1997.
The girl was 14 at the time of the first incident and 15 during a later offence.
For those crimes, he received a three-year prison term to run concurrently with the eight-year rape sentence.
Passing sentence, Judge John Morris KC described the rape as an extremely serious, premeditated and joint attack on a young woman.
During mitigation, defence counsel said Kernachan maintained his innocence in relation to the rape but was aware of the harm caused by sexual offending.
The court heard he had previously supported author Dana Fowley, who publicly detailed the severe abuse she suffered as a child and later published a memoir about her experiences.
Ms Fowley died in 2024 at the age of 44.
Several individuals had previously been imprisoned for crimes committed against her.
Kernachan has now been placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
The court made clear that the gravity of the offences required a substantial custodial sentence.
