Man admits murdering Ellen Higginbottom

A man has admitted to murdering a teenage college student from Greater Manchester.

51-year-old Mark Buckley attacked 18-year-old Ellen Higginbottom, before taking her laptop and mobile phone and then leaving her for dead near a wheat field close to Orrell Water Park in Wigan.

Miss Higginbottom was reported missing after failing to return home from Winstanley College in Orrell on the 16th June.

Her body was found the next day and a post-mortem examination confirmed she died from multiple wounds to the neck.

On Monday, shaven-headed Buckley, of New Hall Lane, Preston, pleaded guilty to the murder when he appeared at Manchester Crown Court.

He replied "Guilty'' when the charge was put to him and he was asked to enter a plea.

Mark Hayton QC, defending Buckley, asked Judge David Stockdale QC to adjourn the case until next week for sentencing.

The facts of the case were not given in court and further details will be revealed when Buckley is sentenced, but Neil Fryman, prosecuting, told the hearing: "There was a sexual motivation for this offence and also it was pre-meditated.''

David Steele, 47, of Oakley Avenue, Billinge, appeared alongside Buckley in the dock on Monday, charged with perverting the course of justice and handling stolen goods.

He was not asked to enter a plea following an application by his lawyer, Brian McKenna. He will next appear in court on 6th October.

Two other defendants, Dean Speakman and his partner Vicki Calland, both 30 and from Cobmoor Avenue, Billinge, each pleaded guilty last month to a single charge of perverting the course of justice and handling stolen goods.

Both admitted they handled the mobile phone, laptop and other property belonging to Miss Higginbottom and that they destroyed the property believing she had been murdered.

Judge Stockdale remanded Buckley into custody for sentence on Thursday next week when he, Speakman and Calland will be dealt with