UNITED KINGDOM
ITV
A Catholic priest from Newcastle has been jailed for 17 years for repeatedly sexually abusing a teenage boy.
Father Michael Higginbottom, of West Farm Road, Newcastle, had denied four counts of buggery and four counts of indecent assault but was found guilty after a trial.
The abuse took place when Higginbottom, 74, worked as a teacher in the 1970s. He worked at St Joseph’s College, a boarding school in Upholland, Lancashire.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that his victim attended the seminary, for boys who wanted to become priests, for six months when he was aged between 13 and 14.
In a victim statement read to the court, he said:
My sexual abuse happened so often I became numb to what was happening to me.
I cried so often I believe I could have drowned in my own tears.
– VICTIM
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