Ex-Archbishop: I was too busy with Diana divorce to halt sex abuser
FORMER archbishop of Canterbury George Carey yesterday blamed the distraction of the Prince of Wales’s divorce from Princess Diana to explain why he had not acted against a sex-abusing bishop.
Lord Carey, 82, admitted that under his charge the Church of England had failed to protect victims from “wicked” and “deluded” Peter Ball, despite complaints against him.
But he told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that a “perfect storm” of events including the royal marriage breakdown in 1993 made it the worst time for allegations against Ball to “fall into my lap”.
Lord Carey was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1991 and 2002, and oversaw the Church of England when Ball was first arrested in December 1992. He was allowed to continue to conduct services despite several complaints against him.
And it was not until 2015 that Ball was subsequently imprisoned for sexually abusing 18 young men over 30 years.
Ashamed
Now aged 86, Ball, the former bishop of Lewes and then Gloucester, was released from prison in February last year.
Retired Lord Carey subsequently resigned as honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Oxford last year after an inquiry found he had delayed a “proper investigation” into Ball’s crimes for two decades by failing to pass information to police.
Giving evidence to the inquiry, he admitted that a series of letters sent to him following Ball’s arrest alleging improper behaviour should have been passed on.
One mother wrote that her 17-year-old son had been propositioned by Ball, another described naked caressing and a third, from a 17-year-old boy, said Ball had urged him to carry out a sex act during a counselling session.
Lord Carey said Ball’s behaviour was “awful” and that as the leader of the Church, he was “deeply ashamed”.
But he said he had not been asked to hand the letters over to the police, who at the time were investigating. Lord Carey said: “Looking back now, what is described in these letters is appalling behaviour by a bishop. It’s very clear now that we should have handed those letters over.”
The inquiry heard that after Ball’s arrest Lord Carey wrote to the bishop, saying: “Peter, I want you to know you are in my heart and constantly in my prayers. You need to know further that the matter does not diminish my admiration for you or my determination to keep you on the episcopal bench. You are greatly loved by so many in the church... so be encouraged and don’t lose heart.”
Giving evidence, Lord Carey was asked why the church had allowed Ball to continue to preach despite officials being warned of his predatory behaviour. The former Archbishop said: “They fell into the trap of a pretty wicked person, a deluded person who used his considerable influence to shape them wrongly.
“We failed the abused in a number of different ways.”
But he said a “perfect storm” of events including the issue of the ordination of women and the breakdown of Charles’s marriage to Diana meant that revelations about Ball came at the “worst time”.
Lord Carey said: “There was so much going on so it was the very worst time to have something like this falling into my lap.” He added that the Church during his tenure was sometimes “behind the curve” when it came to addressing abuse allegations, adding: “All of us pre-Jimmy Savile had no understanding that those people in influence and power can have a really negative and evil effect on the lives of others, and this has gone on in the church from time to time.”
Asked if he had received child protection training, he said he did not know it was available at the time.
The inquiry continues.