Pervert ex-priest released on bail
AFORMER priest jailed for a campaign of sexual abuse of a teenage boy has been released on bail 15 months after being sentenced to 17 years’ jail.
Michael Higginbottom, 75, subjected the boy to repeated sex assaults while he was working as a teacher at a seminary in Lancashire in the 1970s.
The Catholic clergyman abused the youngster in his living quarters at St Joseph’s College, in Up Holland, near Skelmersdale.
He was convicted of eight serious sex crimes, including four serious sexual assaults and four other indecent assaults, at Liverpool Crown Court in April 2017, but was granted the right to appeal against his conviction last November.
While no date has yet been set for that appeal, a bail application was granted on July 24 this year, meaning that Higginbottom was able to leave prison.
He maintained his innocence and during the November hearing a Court of Appeal panel, led by lord chief justice, Lord Burnett, said Higginbottom had an “arguable” case that his convictions should be quashed.
Launching the appeal in November, Higginbottom’s lawyers argued that his convictions were unsafe due to a mistake in the trial judge’s ruling on what evidence went before the jury.
Granting permission to appeal, Mr Justice Teare said there was “an arguable point” as to whether evidence of a charge of fraud made against the complainant should have been included
The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Teare and Mr Justice Kerr, granted permission for a full hearing of Higginbottom’s challenge.