UNITED KINGDOM
Leigh Journal
Victims have called on government to stop the Church “policing itself” as the right-hand man of pervert bishop Peter Ball was jailed for six and a half years for a series of sex attacks spanning 16 years.
Earlier this week, retired priest Vickery House, 69, was found guilty of five counts of indecent assault on males – with one as young as 14 – in the 1970s and 80s.
During much of that time, House was vicar in Berwick, East Sussex, and worked under Ball – who earlier this month was jailed for 32 months after he admitted molesting young men between 1977 and 1992.
Three of House’s victims were also abused by Ball around the time they took part in a Church of England scheme called Give A Year For Christ which was run by the clergymen.
The scandal has been mired in accusations of an establishment cover-up with former Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester Ball, 83, counting a member of the Royal Family among those who wrote letters of support before he was let off with a caution in 1993.
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