UNITED KINGDOM
Darlington & Stockton Times
Exclusive By Joe Willis, Regional Chief Reporter
THE Catholic Church has been criticised for failing to reinstate a popular parish priest who The Northern Echo can reveal was accused – but never charged – of child sexual abuse.
Parishioners continue to stand by Father Michael Higginbottom after he was suspended from St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, in Darlington, in December 2004.
An Echo investigation today reveals that the Catholic Church paid out £35,000 to a man who claimed he was sexually assaulted by Fr Higginbottom while the priest was teaching at St Joseph’s College, in Upholland, near Wigan, in the late 1970s.
The Northern Echo put the allegations to Fr Higginbottom, he denied knowing the nature of the claims and said he could not discuss the reasons for his suspension for “legal reasons”.
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