How Charles wrote letter of support to abuse bishop
again.” Just over two years earlier, on February 16, 1995, he wrote: “I wish I could do more. I feel so desperately strongly about the monstrous wrongs that have been done to you and the way you have been treated.”
In a letter read out as an effective witness statement at the inquiry yesterday, Charles, 69, said he could “not shed any light” on whom he was referring to in the 1997 letter.
He claimed that although he knew Ball had accepted a caution for what he believed was a “transgression”, he had no idea at the time that it meant he had admitted his guilt.
The Prince, who regularly invited Ball into his home and remained friends with him for two decades, said he regretted having been deceived by the bishop.
Ball, now 86, was finally jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing 18 young men over a 30-year period after a review of the evidence against him. Todd committed suicide after the police reopened the investigation in 2012.
Ball, who also served as Bishop of Lewes, was released in February last year after serving half of his 32-month sentence behind bars but has claimed he is too ill to give evidence in person.
In a written statement, he said the letters from Charles had been given to Lambeth Palace on the understanding they would not be made public until after the deaths of Princes William and Harry.
The inquiry is examining claims that leading Establishment figures including Charles and Lord Carey helped protect Ball.
In his letter to the inquiry, Charles, said: “In the 1980s and 1990s there was a presumption that people such as bishops could be taken at their word.”
But lawyer Richard Scorer said: “Prince Charles had access to the best legal advice that money can buy and, as a man in his position, a particular responsibility to check the facts. It is difficult to see his failure to do so as anything other than wilful blindness.”