Peers: protect identity of dead accused of crimes

♦Peers have called on the Government to protect the identity of people accused of a crime after their death.

One member of the House of Lords said Anglicans were “deeply ashamed” of the Church of England’s handling of the case of Bishop George Bell who, several decades after his death in 1958, was accused of abusing a child.

A report published at the end of last year by Lord Carlile found that the highly respected bishop’s reputation had been unnecessarily damaged by the Church when it publicly named him in an apology to the alleged victim in 2015.

In a debate in the House of Lords, peers called on the Government to “uphold the cardinal principle that an individual is innocent until proven guilty”.

Lord Lexden asked home office minister Baroness Williams whether the Government would “review the law governing the naming of deceased individuals against whom criminal allegations have been made”.

Fellow peer Lord Cormack said “the reputation of a great man has been traduced, and many of us who are Anglicans are deeply ashamed of the way that the Anglican Church has behaved”.

However, Baroness Williams said the Government “do not have plans to review the law”.