UNITED KINGDOM
Premier
Sat 15 Apr 2017
By Aaron James
A diocese has apologised after one of its priests was jailed for 17 years for repeatedly abusing a boy.
Fr Michael Higginbottom, 74, was convicted of four counts of buggery and four counts of indecent assault, committed during his time at St Joseph’s College in Upholland, Lancashire, in the 1970s.
The college, now shut, was for boys exploring becoming priests. Higginbottom’s victim attended St Joseph’s for six months when he was 13 and 14.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the victim also claimed two other priests at St Joseph’s abused him, however both have now died.
The lawyer defending Higginbottom said since he’d committed the offences he’d led a “positive” life ministering as a parish priest.
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