UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 13 September

The disgraced former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball should have been prosecuted 22 years ago when his sex abuse crimes first came to light, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

There was sufficient evidence then to mount a prosecution and the decision merely to issue a caution was wrong, BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme revealed.

Last Tuesday, more than two decades later, Ball pleaded guilty to 18 charges to sex abuse involving young men and to further charges involving misconduct in public office, going back 35 years. He will be sentenced next month.

Solicitor David Greenwood, who represents several of Ball’s victims, told Sunday that offenders such as Ball – who was Bishop of Lewes before his elevation to Gloucester – who had risen to a position of power, tended to feel they were working in…