UNITED KINGDOM
Northern Echo
“CRUEL and sadistic” Catholic priest Michael Higginbottom was jailed for 17 years on Thursday.
Former Darlington parish priest Higginbottom repeatedly raped a boy almost 40 years ago and, following decades of silence, was finally brought to justice this week.
A judge told the 74-year-old he had made a young boy’s life a “living hell” for six months in the late 1970s, while he was a priest and teacher at St Joseph’s seminary in Upholland, West Lancashire.
At Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Andrew Menary, QC described Higginbottom as “someone who undoubtedly had a mean and cruel streak, saying: “The evidence makes plain that when you were teaching you employed methods that today – if not then – would be recognised for what they were cruel sadistic bullying.”
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