Bishop’s abuse overlooked ‘as he was gay’

THE Church of England may have overlooked abuse by a paedophile bishop because he was gay, a former Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Rowan Williams told the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse that “overcompensation” by colleagues who felt “awkward about the traditional closeted attitude” of the Church of England might have allowed Peter Ball “second chances”.

Asked by Fiona Scolding QC, the lead counsel to the Anglican investigation, whether attitudes towards homosexuality affected the way Ball was treated, Dr Williams said that church figures didn’t want to be “seen to be judgmental about people’s sexual activities”.

Ball, a former bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester, was jailed in 2015 for indecent assault against 18 teenagers and young men, and misconduct in public office, between 1977 and 1992, before being released last year.

The hearing also heard that George Pitcher, Dr Williams’s press adviser at the time, suggested John Hind, who was bishop of Chichester, be “thrown to the press as a sacrifice” amid media scrutiny over abuse in the diocese. Dr Williams, who was archbishop from 2002 to 2012, said he had no knowledge of the correspondence at the time.