UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today
Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
A former Anglican bishop and monk was given a caution for sex abuse and not charged in order to minimise embarrassment to the Church of England, according to newly-released documents.
Peter Ball went from being Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to Bishop of Gloucester in 1992. He resigned just a year later in 1993 after receiving a poice caution for gross indecency with a teenage man, but was only jailed in October last year for a string of historic sex abuse offences.
Details have now been published of the 29-page dossier compiled by the two detectives who investigated Ball in 1992.
Ball, 83, was jailed for 32 months last year after he admitted 18 abuse offences against young men and teenagers between 1977 and 1992. One victim, Neil Todd, committed suicide in 2012.
The report by Detective Inspector Wayne Murdock and Acting Detective Sergeant Andrew Wasley, obtained by The Sunday Times under a Freedom of Information request, reveals that police were told Ball would resign and go abroad to work as a missionary in exchange for not being charged.
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