UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
The former judge appointed to investigate allegations of an establishment cover-up of child sex abuse kept allegations about a bishop out of the public domain because the ‘press would love a bishop’
By Alice Philipson 12 Jul 2014
The retired judge appointed to lead the Government’s major review of child sex abuse allegations kept allegations about a bishop out of a report on a paedophile scandal because she “cared about the Church”, it has emerged.
Baroness Butler-Sloss told a victim of alleged abuse that she did not want to include the claims because “the press would love a bishop”.
It comes days after Lady Butler-Sloss was forced to apologise for “inaccuracies” in a previous inquiry into two paedophile priests.
Bishop Ball, 82, the former Bishop of Lewes and Bishop of Gloucester, was charged this year with indecent assault offences and misconduct in a public office.
During a meeting at the House of Lords in 2011, Lady Butler-Sloss told Phil Johnson that she would “prefer not to refer to him” because he was “very old now” and she wanted the focus of any press coverage to be two priests who were prolific abusers – one of whom was dead and the other in prison.
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