I didn’t know bishop was a paedophile, Charles says
The Prince of Wales maintained a close friendship with a disgraced bishop because he did not understand that the clergyman’s caution for gross indecency involved an admission of guilt, he has told a public inquiry.
Prince Charles said that he maintained contact with Peter Ball for more than 20 years until his conviction in 2015 for sexually abusing more than a dozen victims. Ball had to resign his ministry in 1993 after a police investigation into his abuse of boys and young men led to him accepting a caution.
The written statement to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which has been seen by The Times, is described as a draft.
It will be made public next week. The prince, who gave the statement voluntarily, said he had ‘‘decades of correspondence’’ with the bishop and occasionally sent him ‘‘small gifts of money, as I do for many people in need’’.
Ball was invited to give communion at Highgrove, the prince’s home, preached at the funeral of Bruce Shand, the Duchess of Cornwall’s father, in 2006 and lived in a Duchy of Cornwall property from 1997 to 2011.
Ball’s establishment connections and the question of whether influential figures interfered with the criminal justice process will be examined at the inquiry next week. The IICSA published a timetable for five days of hearings yesterday revealing that the prince’s statement would be read but he would not be called to answer questions.
The prince said Ball told him that he had been involved in an ‘‘indiscretion’’ and that an individual with a grudge had been ‘‘persecuting’’ him.
The prince added: ‘‘I was certainly not aware at the time of the significance or impact of the caution . . . Whilst I note that Peter Ball mentioned the word in a letter to me in October 2009, I was not aware until recently that a caution in fact carries an acceptance of guilt.’’
He expressed ‘‘deep personal regret’’ that he had been deceived by Ball. – The Times
‘‘I was certainly not aware at the time of the significance or impact of the caution . . . Whilst I note that Peter Ball mentioned the word in a letter to me in October 2009, I was not aware until recently that a caution in fact carries an acceptance of guilt.’’
Prince Charles