UNITED KINGDOM
Echo
BY LYNDA ROUGHLEY
4 APR 2017
A catholic priest repeatedly sexually abused a young boy in his care “breaching that trust in a spectacular and horrific way,” a court heard.
The boy was just 13 and 14 years old when Father Michael Higginbottom allegedly began seriously abusing him at a seminary in West Lancashire, according to prosecutors.
David Temkin, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that the complainant “recalls the college as a cold, dark and forbidding place” and told police that for him it was the venue for “mental, physical and sexual abuse”.
Fr Higginbottom, now aged 74, of West Farm Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, denies eight offences – four of buggery and four of indecent assault, alleged to have taken place between September 1978 and March 20, 1979.
Mr Temkin told the jury of six men and six women that Higginbottom had been a priest and teacher at St Joseph’s College, Upholland, although he had not trained as a teacher.
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