UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today
Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 13 September
The disgraced former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball should have been prosecuted 22 years ago when his sex abuse crimes first came to light, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
There was sufficient evidence then to mount a prosecution and the decision merely to issue a caution was wrong, BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme revealed.
Last Tuesday, more than two decades later, Ball pleaded guilty to 18 charges to sex abuse involving young men and to further charges involving misconduct in public office, going back 35 years. He will be sentenced next month.
Solicitor David Greenwood, who represents several of Ball’s victims, told Sunday that offenders such as Ball – who was Bishop of Lewes before his elevation to Gloucester – who had risen to a position of power, tended to feel they were working in a culture where they could “get away with it” without being caught. “It seems that Peter Ball has been able to do that,” he said.
The officer in the case said Ball had used a “cloak of fraudulent Christianity” to deceive and groom his victims. Many of the victims were aspiring priests and he would offer to support them through their ordination.
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