Abuse Bishop Escaped Prosecution after Being Backed by Two Archbishops, a Judge and Tory Mps Including David Cameron's Godfather

By Tom Kelly
Daily Mail
December 31, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3380692/Abuse-bishop-escaped-prosecution-backed-two-Archbishops-judge-Tory-MPs-including-David-Cameron-s-godfather.html

Establishment figures mounted an extraordinary campaign to protect Peter Ball after he was accused of molesting a teenage novice monk in 1993

A predatory bishop escaped prosecution for sex abuse for 22 years after leading Establishment figures told police and prosecutors he was a 'saint'.

Two Archbishops of Canterbury, Tory MPs – including David Cameron's godfather – a senior judge and public school headmasters mounted an extraordinary campaign to protect Peter Ball after he was accused of molesting a teenage novice monk in 1993.

In letters to police chiefs and the Director of Public Prosecutions they variously complained that the allegations had caused the bishop 'excruciating pain' and claimed it was 'literally inconceivable' that he could have committed the offences.

Twelve letters have been released following requests under the Freedom of Information Act – which has exposed numerous scandals but which is threatened by a government review set up after ministers claimed the law is 'too costly' to administer.

Former Tory Cabinet Minister Tim Renton demanded Ball be spared criminal charges because his greatest punishment would be the knowledge that he had 'broken his vows of chastity'.

And Lord Justice Anthony Lloyd wrote to the Chief Constable of the Gloucestershire force investigating Ball to say: 'He is the most gentle upright and saintly man I have ever met.'

Ball, who counted Prince Charles as a 'loyal friend', was let off with a caution after admitting one count of gross indecency, and detectives dropped investigations into other victims.

Despite quitting in disgrace, Ball was allowed to return to the Church two years after his caution and officiated in the diocese of Bath and Wells until 2010.

The disgraced former Bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester was finally jailed for 32 months in October. Ball, 83, admitted to offences against 18 teenagers and young men between 1977 and 1992.

The existence of the campaign emerged during Ball's Old Bailey sentencing hearing, which was told that the decision not to prosecute him in 1993 was made after police received dozens of letters and calls.

But it was not until yesterday – New Year's Eve – that the Crown Prosecution Service released 12 of the letters following Freedom of Information requests.

Prosecutor Bobbie Cheema QC had also told the Old Bailey that in 1993 Ball's lawyers had claimed to have a letter of support from a member of the Royal Family, but the CPS said yesterday it had not seen this correspondence.


Allegations against Ball were first made in 1992 by novice monk Neil Todd, one of many boys abused at the bishop's house at Litlington, East Sussex.

Ball watched him taking cold showers, pulled down his underpants and encouraged him to submit to beatings with a stick or whip so his body could 'bear the marks'.

But a few weeks after his arrest Tim Renton, now a peer, wrote to the then Director of Public Prosecutions Barbara Mills to say it was the Bishop who had 'suffered terribly'.

Lord Carey, then Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to the Gloucestershire Chief Constable in February 1993 describing 'the excruciating pain and spiritual torment which these allegations have inevitably brought upon a man in his exposed position'.

James Woodhouse, the former headmaster of Rugby School, told police in 1993 that Ball's 'intention towards all people, young or old, is wholly that of Christian concern and compassion'.

Phil Johnson, who said he was indecently assaulted by Ball when he was a 13-year-old choirboy, said: 'This campaign is indicative of how the Establishment has looked out for its own.'