Victims angry about sex abuse ex-Gloucester Bishop Peter Ball being released ear, by Janet Hughes, Gloucestershire Live (February 8, 2017)

Victims angry about sex abuse ex-Gloucester Bishop Peter Ball being released ear

Victims have reacted with anger that a former Bishop of Gloucester jailed for sex abuse has been released before a Church of England report into how he escaped justice for over two decades.

Peter Ball, a former Bishop of Gloucester who was jailed for abusing young men, has been released after serving half of his 32-month sentence.

During his trial, there were allegations of an establishment cover up to protect Ball, now aged 84, who admitted abusing 18 young men between 1977 and 1992.

Now questions are being asked why he has been set free before the results of the independent Church of England inquiry into his activities ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, have been published.

The fact he has only served 16 months in jail for crimes that scarred his many vulnerable victims is an affront to justice

Victims say they hope the review ordered by the Most Rev Justin Welby in February 2016 will give them answers to the questions they are asking about he managed to escape justice for so long.

Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, who represent a number of Bishop Ball's victims, said: "Ball's early release after serving just half of his sentence is a huge blow to his victims.

"This was a man whose appalling crimes represented a gross and systematic abuse of trust spanning decades. The fact he has only served 16 months in jail for crimes that scarred his many vulnerable victims is an affront to justice."

"What is equally frustrating is that despite his conviction we still have not got to the bottom of which establishment figures - including MPs, cabinet ministers and members of the Royal Family – came out in support of him in the 1990s.

"This is a disgrace and those who suffered at Ball's hands deserve answers."

One of Ball's victims said: "Ball's crimes led to one of his victims committing suicide so how can 16 months in jail be justice? There are still many questions that need answers about what happened.

"What is crucially important is that the inquiry into child abuse answers these questions before it is too late."

Ball, who was Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to 1992, founded the Monastic Order of Community of the Glorious Ascension at Stratford Park in Stroud with his twin brother and was Prior there from 1960 to 1977.

He was ordained as Bishop of Gloucester in 1992 but resigned the following year after accepting a formal police caution for an act of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man.

At his eventual trial in October 2015 it was alleged that the matter was never taken to court and numerousestablishment figures, spoke up for him. After he retired he went to live on a Duchy estate in Somerset.

I think it's utterly ridiculous that it's taken longer to write a report on what happened than it has for Peter Ball to serve his jail sentence,

The court heard that a 1993 report by Detective Inspector Wayne Murdock of Gloucestershire CID, said the police had visited Lambeth Palace and it was suggested a church investigation instigated by the Archbishop would be "fairly low key and private".

Although the report invited the CPS to bear in mind the effect that Ball had on his victims, it also points out support from cabinet ministers, members of the Royal family, MPs, former public school headmasters, magistrates and a Lord Chief Justice.

The report said Ball had been "less than truthful" and "calculating", "hiding his sexual desires behind the robe of religion" and offered three options – to charge, caution or discharge.

The Crown Prosecution Service now admit he should have been charged and Dame Moira Gibb is carrying out a review of the church's handling of the case.

A spokesman for the Church of the England said it was expected to be finished, as agreed, at end of February and to be published later in the Spring.

But Phil Johnson from Eastbourne, who was not one of the 18 people Ball admitted abusing but alleges that Ball inappropriately touched him as a 13-year-old boy, is also unhappy that the Bishop is out before the report.

"I think it's utterly ridiculous that it's taken longer to write a report on what happened than it has for Peter Ball to serve his jail sentence," he said.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said they could not comment on individual cases but pointed out that under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, most prisoners must be automatically released at the halfway point of their sentence.

"Public protection is our priority," said the spokesman. "Sex offenders on licence are robustly risk assessed and subject to a strict set of conditions, which may include preventing them from contacting their victims and banning them from entering certain areas, as well as being subject to the sex offenders' register. If they fail to comply, they can be recalled to prison."