Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey admits church failed abuse victims, SKY News (July 24, 2018)

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey admits church failed abuse victims

Lord Carey told the child sexual abuse inquiry he was "shocked" by the crimes committed by disgraced bishop Peter Ball.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has admitted he feels "deeply ashamed" that the Church of England failed to act on sexual abuse claims made against disgraced bishop Peter Ball.

Lord Carey told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that he was "completely shocked" by the crimes committed by Ball, who was jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing 18 young men over a period of three decades.

The former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester - who was released in February last year - was said to have "systematically abused the trust of the victims", many of whom who were aspiring priests.

Giving evidence at the long-running inquiry on Tuesday, Lord Carey - who oversaw the church at the time of Ball's arrest in December 1992 - acknowledged that his victims had been failed "in a number of different ways".

"They fell into the trap of a pretty wicked person, a deluded person who used his considerable influence to shape them wrongly," he said.

"We did not have safeguarding procedures in place then. One thing I could have done is to set up an action committee to delve into matters more individually as well.

"I want to say that if I were to do it now I think I would do it a number of different ways, with hindsight."

He added that the church was sometimes "behind the curve" when it came to addressing allegations of abuse, and that nobody had access to any child protection training during what he described as a "pre-Savile era".

While there was said to be some awareness of the abuse, with some parents writing to the church to highlight claims against Ball, Lord Carey said there was "no widespread understanding" of the issue.

None of the letters written by parents or victims were passed to the police at any time during the criminal investigation into Ball, now 86, between 1992 and 1993.

An earlier inquiry found that a failure to do so meant he delayed a "proper investigation" into Ball's crimes for 20 years, forcing him to resign as honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Oxford

"I think it is awful behaviour. As a leader of the church at the time I'm deeply ashamed of this. It's deeply embarrassing.

"We mishandled this, that's very clear. We have been fobbing people off. They should have had direct replies."

Lord Carey admitted that he believed Ball's protestations of innocence for "quite some time", adding that it took many within the church "a little time to catch on to what this man was doing to younger people".

He said he "could not believe that a bishop in the Church of England could do such evil things", and was keen to keep an open mind as to Ball's innocence until the allegations were proven.

In a pastoral letter at the time of the investigation, Lord Carey asked people to "hope and pray" that Ball's name would be cleared.

In 1993, Ball resigned from his position as Bishop of Gloucester after admitting an act of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man and accepted a formal police caution, but he was restored back to full ministry by Lord Carey in 1997.

Having been brought back into the church, he was then allowed to carry out unsupervised visits to schools.

"Theologically I saw the possibility of a fresh start for him in a very limited fashion," Lord Carey told the inquiry.

The inquiry was launched in 2014 to look at the extent to which institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse.