UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Sandra Laville
Friday 9 October 2015
The partner of a man who killed himself after being abused by a Church of England bishop is calling for the decision not to prosecute him 22 years ago to be investigated by the Goddard inquiry into institutional child sex abuse.
Neil Todd, the original complainant against Bishop Peter Ball in the 1990s, took his own life aged 38 after a new police investigation into Ball began in 2012.
Todd’s partner Marc Hawley, who lives in Australia, said on Friday that the Ball case must be investigated in public hearings to be run by a forthcoming inquiry led by Dame Lowell Goddard.
Hawley said: “Neil, my soul partner of 20 years, was taken from me at a far too early an age due to the heinous crimes committed against him by a man called Peter Ball, who hid behind his religious position to acquire young men and boys for his own sexual gratification.”
Hawley questioned the jail sentence handed down to 83-year-old Ball on Wednesday – two years and eight months – for 15 years of sexual exploitation, abuse and grooming of young men who came into his orbit while he was the bishop of Lewes.
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