UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
Victims of former bishop Peter Ball are suing the Church for hundreds of thousands of pounds after he admitted abusing his position to groom young aspiring priests for his own sexual pleasure.
The former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester will be sentenced at the Old Bailey tomorrow for misconduct in a public office between 1977 and 1992 and two counts of sexual assault on young men in their late teens.
In all, the charges relate to 18 victims, excluding two counts of indecent assault on a boy of 12 or 13 and a 15-year-old youth which were denied and will lie on file.
Ball, 83, had used religion as a cloak to abuse the young men who had come to his home in Litlington, East Sussex, to religious instruction before he was moved to Gloucester in 1992.
Some 22 years after allegations first surfaced against him, Ball was finally brought to account in court, despite repeated bids to get the case thrown out.
Today, David Greenwood, of Switalskis Solicitors, who represents four of the victims, said that since his guilty plea, legal action had been lodged against the Diocese of Chichester.
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