Prince to give evidence on paedophile bishop
The Prince of Wales has been asked to give a witness statement to a public inquiry about a paedophile bishop who was convicted and jailed for abusing young men.
The Prince has been approached by lawyers acting for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is investigating Peter Ball, the former bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester, who was jailed in 2015. The Prince had exchanged private letters with Ball.
THE Prince of Wales has been asked to give a witness statement to a public inquiry about a paedophile bishop who was jailed for abusing young men.
Prince Charles has been approached by lawyers acting for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is investigating the disgraced bishop Peter Ball. The former bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester was sent to prison for 32 months in 2015 after he admitted abusing 18 teenagers and young men between the Seventies and Nineties.
His abuse was first reported to police in 1992 but charges were not brought, and instead Ball accepted a caution and resigned.
The Prince of Wales had exchanged letters with Ball. A separate independent inquiry found last year that Ball had exploited his contact with members of the Royal family, but found no evidence that the heir to the throne nor any other member of the Royal family had “sought to intervene at any point in order to protect or promote Ball”.
In 2015, Ball’s sentencing hearing heard that when the Crown Prosecution Service first investigated his crimes in 1992 it received 2,000 letters of support for the bishop “including letters from cabinet ministers and Royal family”. No member of the Royal family was named.
Leading counsel to the inquiry Fiona Scolding QC said the inquiry would examine whether “improper pressure” was placed on the police, CPS and Church of England by “individuals who were prominent in public life”.
She said her team had “requested a witness statement from both His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and his principal private secretary”.
She added that the Prince’s lawyers had “indicated their client’s willingness to assist us and have raised a number of important issues for us to consider.
“This has led to lengthy and complex discussions and we are currently considering the latest points they have raised. We hope to be able to provide an update to core participants on this in the next couple of weeks.”
After he resigned, the bishop rented a house on the Prince of Wales’s Duchy of Cornwall estate. He was subsequently allowed to continue officiating.
At the time of the 2015 hearing, a spokesman for Clarence House said: “The Prince of Wales made no intervention in the judicial process on behalf of Peter Ball.”
Last year, Moira Gibb’s review into Ball’s offending found that he tried to use his contact with the Prince of Wales to influence the Archbishop of Canterbury, who at the time was Lord Carey of Clifton.
Lawyer Richard Scorer, from Slater and Gordon, representing complainants at the inquiry, said no stone should be left unturned.
“If this means calling Prince Charles and other prominent establishment figures as witnesses, then the inquiry should do so without fear or favour.”