UNITED KINGDOM
Daiy Mail
By HUGO GYE FOR MAILONLINE
A bishop who escaped prosecution for abusing young men when a host of Establishment figures – including a member of the Royal family – defended him is finally behind bars.
Peter Ball’s imprisonment comes as Prince Charles has denied that he is the unidentified Royal who intervened two decades ago to help out the former Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester.
Ball – who once described the heir to the throne as ‘a loyal friend’ – was arrested in 1992 after beating a 17-year-old novice monk and encouraging him to pray naked.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to charge him after a number of VIPs including MPs, public school headmasters and the Lord Chief Justice phoned police to stand up for him.
Among 2,000 letters of support sent on behalf of Ball were some from cabinet ministers and one from a Royal, the Old Bailey heard.
When asked if the Royal was Prince Charles, a spokesman for Clarence House said: ‘The Prince of Wales made no intervention in the judicial process on behalf of Peter Ball.’
Ball, now 83, was today jailed for 32 months, two decades after he was let off with a caution for carrying out a string of sex attacks on vulnerable youths.
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