UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times
by Madeleine Davies
Posted: 18 Jul 2014
A MAN who was abused as a choirboy, Phil Johnson, has added his voice to the criticism of Baroness Butler-Sloss, who resigned on Monday from chairing the Government’s inquiry into historical allegations of child-abuse in institutions.
Mr Johnson met Lady Butler-Sloss at the House of Lords in 2011, after she had been appointed by the diocese of Chichester to review its handling of abuse allegations. That review centred on abuse perpetrated by two priests: Roy Cotton and Colin Pritchard. Mr Cotton died in 2006, and Mr Pritchard was jailed for five years in 2008 (News, 1 August 2008).
On Friday, Mr Johnson told the BBC that he had also made allegations about a former Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Revd Peter Ball. He alleged that Lady Butler-Sloss had told him that, if she included the Bishop’s name in her report, it would distract from the more serious abuse by the two priests. But he also stated that she “didn’t want to generate any excessive negative publicity for the Church. . . She expressed that by saying that ‘the press would love a bishop’, and she didn’t want to give the press that trophy.”
He said: “She told me that she cared very much about the Church, and seemed to be wanting to protect the Church’s image.”
He accepts that she did pass on his allegations about Bishop Ball.
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