UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Tuesday 23 February 2016
The Church of England has appointed an independent panel to review its handling of the case of Peter Ball, the former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester who was jailed for sex abuse offences, and to help it “learn from its errors”.
The review, which will report to the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, within a year, is to examine what information was in the church’s possession concerning Ball, and when; and whether the church’s response was appropriate and complied with the law.
Ball, 83, was sentenced last October to 32 months in prison for the grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse of 18 vulnerable young men between 1977 and 1992.
His trial at the Old Bailey heard that a string of senior establishment figures, including an unidentified member of the royal family, wrote letters in support of Ball while the police were investigating allegations of abuse. Following a caution for gross indecency in 1993, Paul resigned as bishop of Gloucester and lived in a rented cottage on the Prince of Wales’s Duchy of Cornwall estate. He was not prosecuted for more than 20 years.
On New Year’s Eve, the church released a cache of letters following a Freedom of Information request. One from the former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to the chief constable of Gloucester spoke of Ball’s “excruciating pain and spiritual torment” over the abuse allegations.
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