WIGAN (LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND)
Wigan Today
November 23, 2017
By Peter Magill
A Catholic priest convicted of repeatedly abusing a teenage boy at a seminary in the Wigan area has been given leave to appeal by law lords.
Father Michael Higginbottom, 74, was jailed for 17 years in April after being found guilty of a catalogue of abuse concerning a boy, then aged 13 and 14, at St Joseph’s College at Upholland in the 1970s.
Court of Appeal officials have now confirmed that Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Mr Justice Teare and Mr Justice Kerr, have given leave to appeal, after it was reported that a previous fraud charge should not have been admitted into evidence.
No date has yet been fixed for the appeal, according to a court spokesman, and Higginbottom will remain in custody until the next hearing.
Higginbottom, who was convicted of eight sexual offences, was a teacher at St Joseph’s, which trained young boys wanting to become priests.
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