Ex-bishop Helped Cover up Abuse by Colleague
By John Bingham
A disgraced bishop who was jailed earlier this month for sexually assaulting a string of young would-be priests also helped cover up abuse by one of his closest aides, it has emerged. Peter Ball, the former Bishop of Lewes in the Church of England diocese of Chichester, wrote to apologise to one young man who had been abused by the Rev Vickery House in 1984, claiming to have taken steps to ensure that “nothing like it happens again”.
House, now 69, was jailed for six and a half years at the Old Bailey for a series of sex attacks on boys and young men, including one victim aged just 14, over a 16-year period from 1977 to 1992. A former vicar in Berwick, East Sussex, he served as Ball’s deputy running a church gap-year scheme called “Give A Year For Christ” where he targeted young men testing out a possible “call” to ordination. “All I can do is apologise so sincerely and deeply as I know how, and for that, though I know you feel that I am responsible, I have taken steps which I pray will ensure that nothing like it happens again.” Peter Ball Three of his House's victims were also abused by Ball, who was also jailed three weeks ago after admitting indecent assaults on 18 young men in the 1970s and 1980s. Meanwhile another bishop from the same diocese, the former Bishop of Chichester George Bell was revealed as a paedophile by the Church of England last week. The cases have prompted renewed calls from victims for a change in the law to introduce mandatory reporting of sexual allegations to prevent cover-ups. The National Secular Society said the cover-ups in Chichester left it with “no confidence” in a Church of England investigation into past abuse and called for the national independent inquiry into child sexual abuse being led by Judge Lowell Goddard to extend its remit to the Church
Although there is no evidence that House and Ball acted together to target victims, a letter emerged in court showing that Ball was aware of at least one case of House abusing a young man. He wrote to him in April 1984 claiming to be “devastated” to have heard what he had been subjected to by House, whom he referred to as “Vick” “I am sad beyond words and only wish that I had known sooner,” he wrote. “All I can do is apologise so sincerely and deeply as I know how, and for that, though I know you feel that I am responsible, I have taken steps which I pray will ensure that nothing like it happens again.” Urging the young man to forgive him he promised to pray for him closing with “God bless” and signing himself as “Peter”. Detective Inspector Jez Prior of Sussex Police said: "We have no other evidence to show that Ball knew what House was doing but the clear inference from the letter is that he at least knew that something allegedly inappropriate had happened involving that young man and House. “There is nothing to show that Ball took any other action about the matter.”
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.