LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — A Berks County man is facing up to fifty years in jail following a second sex offense conviction.
Bradley Buchanan, 39, from Birdsboro, was found guilty on charges of attempted statutory sexual assault, soliciting sex, unlawful contact with a minor, attempting to patronize a victim of human trafficking, soliciting sex from a victim of human trafficking, attempted indecent assault of a person less than 16 and soliciting sex from a person less than 16, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office.
Buchanan was found guilty by a jury following a two-day trial before Lancaster County Judge Thomas Sponaugle.
He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 to 50 years for the second-strike offense after he was convicted of having sex with a minor in Berks County in 2012.
According to the DA's Office, on Aug. 24, 2022, an online advertisement was posted by officers offering sex with a minor. Communication then began between Buchanan and law enforcement, who posed as a family member of a 12-year-old to facilitate sex acts.
Buchanan agreed to pay $250 to have sex with the child for thirty minutes and requested a nude photo. The phone number used in the communications was tracked back to his phone.
Buchanan reportedly followed directions to take a photo of a gas station pump and travel to a hotel in Salisbury Township, Lancaster County. He acknowledged seeing a person at the door of the hotel in a purple skirt, which was an undercover officer, and was arrested.
“This was an online child predator sting that caught just that,” Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick said during his closing argument. “Bradley Buchanan was online looking to prey on a child in this community. He was online looking to purchase the body of a 12-year-old from that child’s aunt, so he could sexually abuse that child for $250. [The defendant] thought he found just that. Fortunately, he found a dedicated team of law enforcement officers who are trying to keep this community safe from child predators."
Buchanan is one of nine defendants arrested in similar HTTF stings in 2022 and one of four defendants (Joseph Giannini, Jose Villa Corta, and Jeffrey Fralich) who have been convicted.
