The former Bishop of Lewes is due to be sentenced for sexually abusing young men at the Old Bailey in London today (Wednesday 7 October).
Some of his victims are suing the Chichester diocese of the Church of England.
Peter Ball, 83, who started his career as a curate in Rottingdean, admitted abusing boys at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in London last month.
Ball is a former Lancing College pupil who was Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to 1992 and then Bishop of Gloucester. He resigned in 1993 after accepting a caution for a sexual assault.
He is due to be sentenced this morning by Mr Justice Wilkie – Sir Alan Wilkie – after claims that Ball was helped by friends in high places to avoid prosecution for more than 20 years.
The solicitor representing four of Ball’s victims, David Greenwood, of Switalskis, said: “The prosecution comes after a hard fight by a number of men to bring him to justice.
“Their calls were resisted by Ball, by the church and law enforcement agencies.
“Ball used friends in high places to resist court prosecution in 1993.
“Former archbishop George Carey intervened to gain an assurance from the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) that there would be no further prosecution if he resigned and accepted a caution.
“This is highly questionable behaviour from the head of the church.
“Peter Ball’s legal team argued that former DPP (director of public prosecutions) Barbara Mills had given an assurance that no further charges would be laid against him if he accepted a caution.
“Again, if true, this is inappropriate and suggests an organised cover up.
“The church sat on files from many complainants between 1993 and 2012, failing to bring the complaints to the attention of the police during this time.
“Only when a former police officer doing a review of files found this evidence were the police alerted.
“In effect the church had been caught out a second time covering up the scale and severity of Ball’s offending.
“Ball tried to argue unsuccessfully in preliminary hearings that
- his health was too poor to allow him to stand trial
- the post of bishop was not a public office so he could not be prosecuted for misconduct in a public office
- he had received an assurance from the DPP in 1993 – brokered by George Carey who gave evidence to this effect – that he would not be prosecuted
“It emerged during the search for a chair of the child abuse inquiry that Baroness Butler-Sloss – Elizabeth Butler-Sloss – was reluctant to include former Bishop Peter Ball in her review of failings in the diocese of Chichester.
“Survivor Phil Johnson spoke to The Times newspaper and passed a recording of the baroness to them.”
Mr Greenwood, head of child abuse cases at Switalskis Solicitors, said: “The whole affair demonstrates how high-ranking officials have used their power and positions to protect their own.
“If this can happen at such a high level then what is happening in dioceses throughout the country where CofE (Church of England) and Catholic bishops are still able to decide whether to report to the police allegations against their own priests?
“The church should no longer be allowed to police itself and the introduction of mandatory reporting is long overdue.
“I will be advising the Goddard inquiry to recommend the establishment of an independent body to accept and investigate allegations of abuse without meddling by the country’s institutions.”
Ball, of Aller, near Langport, in Somerset, is the most senior clergyman in the Church of England to have been prosecuted for sex abuse.
He took advantage of 16 young men during his time as Bishop of Lewes when he lived in Litlington, near Alfriston.
The court ordered two of the most serious allegations against Ball, which he denied, to be left on file.
Mr Johnson said that the decision not to prosecute him for indecently assaulting two boys in their early teens had been taken to save the cost of an expensive trial.
One of Ball’s victims, Neil Todd, killed himself in 2012.
The church has issued an unreserved apology to all Ball’s victims and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has ordered a review of the way the case was handled.
