Revealed: Charles' dozens of letters to 'calculating' paedophile bishop as victims demand they are made public

By Tom Kelly And Rebecca English
Daily Mail
January 26, 2017

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4162372/Prince-Charles-wrote-padeophile-bishop.html

Victims of paedophile bishop Peter Ball, left, have demanded that correspondence between himself and Prince Charles, right, is made public although Clarence House insists there is nothing in the letters which is relevant into the church's handling of Ball's case

Ball, pictured, was cautioned in 1993 for an act of gross indecency against a 17-year-old boy

Ball was Bishop of Gloucester which covers Prince Charles's Highgrove Estate

Victims of a paedophile bishop last night called for dozens of letters he received from Prince Charles to be made public.

Extensive correspondence is understood to exist between the future king and Peter Ball, the 'calculating' former Bishop of Gloucester, who was jailed after admitting exploiting his position to groom and abuse 18 young men.

The prince's letters now have been handed to an independent inquiry into the case, launched after Ball was convicted two years ago.

It is not clear what role, if any, they will play in the inquiry which is examining the Church's handling of the Ball case, but Charles has not given any evidence to it either formally or informally nor has he or his team been asked to.

The content of the letters is unknown, but in a statement yesterday, Clarence House said they believed there was nothing in them which pertained to the case.

A spokesman for the prince said: 'We do not believe that the letters have any bearing on the issues before the inquiry, but we have not objected to them being shared for their consideration.'

Royal sources insist it would be perfectly normal for the future king to write to the priest, who in 1992 became Bishop of Gloucester, the diocese in which Charles' country home, Highgrove, sits.

One said that the existence of letters between the two simply reflected their 'long-standing acquaintance'.

It is not clear if the prince continued to write to Ball after his well-publicised earlier arrest and police caution for gross indecency against a 17-year-old boy in 1993.

Ball escaped prosecution for this offence, despite investigators knowing of 'many' more allegations against him, after the police received dozens of supportive letters and calls from MPs, former public headmasters, JPs and even a Lord Chief Justice.

At the time his lawyers also told the police they had a letter of support from a member of the Royal Family, but prosecutors said they had not seen this correspondence and there is no evidence that this letter even existed.

However, Ball clearly did continue to enjoy cordial relations with the royals as he read the homily at the funeral of the father of the Duchess of Cornwall in 2006.

The letters from Charles are understood to have been handed to the Church of England's independent inquiry, which is being led by former council chief executive Dame Moira Gibb.

A Church of England spokesman said: 'We are supplying the inquiry with all information relevant to the inquiry's purposes as set out in its Terms of Reference.'

The Government's separate child abuse inquiry is also due to investigate whether there were 'inappropriate attempts by people of prominence to interfere in the criminal justice processes' after Ball was first accused of child sexual offences 24 years ago.

Phil Johnson, one of Ball's victims and chairman of the Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors group, last night called for the letters to be made public in the 'spirit of openness.'

He said: 'I think the victims have a right to know what is in them. They may of course just be innocent letters between friends. But given the grave concerns about how the case was handled, the public also have a right to know what the future head of state wrote to Ball for the avoidance of any doubt.'

After his second arrest in 2015, Ball claimed his victims had been 'spiritually uplifted' by his treatment of them. The court heard how he targeted young men seeking spiritual instruction on the Bishop's 'Give a Year for Christ' scheme.

He changed his plea at the last minute and admitted to offences against 18 teenagers and young men between 1977 and 1992. He was sentenced to 32 months for misconduct in public office and 15 months for indecent assault, to run concurrently.

The lawyer for some of those he abused said the way establishment figures closed ranks around him had 'compounded his victims' anguish'.

Two years ago, 27 letters that Charles sent to ministers between September 2004 and April 2005 were published after a decade-long legal battle over their release that went to the Supreme Court.