UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
By MILES DILWORTH FOR THE DAILY MAIL
22 April 2018
Police have dropped a controversial inquiry into an ex-bishop allegedly smeared by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Sussex Police said it is no longer investigating an allegation of child sex abuse against the late George Bell, former bishop of Chichester, referred to them earlier this year.
A spokesman said the investigation had been completed last month.
Claims against Dr Bell – who was widely respected for speaking out against Nazi atrocities and saving Jews from persecution – surfaced in 2012, but were dismissed over a lack of evidence.
Justin Welby was heavily criticised for trashing the reputation of Dr Bell – who died in 1958 – after he ‘rushed’ to accept claims the bishop was a paedophile. An independent review by Lord Carlile last year said the Church of England had ‘hung him out to dry’ on the say-so of a woman who alleged more than 50 years after he died that Dr Bell abused her as a child.
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