![]() It seems Peter Ball has been able to do that." Keith Porteous Wood, the executive director of the National Secular Society (NSS), believes this was an orchestrated campaign. Phil Johnson, who claims Ball abused him when he was 13 years old, said it looked like a deal was done between the Church of England, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the CPS, and said, "I think there was great effort made to avoid bad publicity and to avoid the embarrassment of trying a bishop in public."ĭavid Greenwood, a solicitor acting for some victims, said that "With more power comes the ability to work in a culture where you feel that you can get away with it. Sawyer believes that the establishment is still too strong and its links with the church should be investigated. The Reverend Graham Sawyer, an abuse victim, wants a full investigation and blames corrupt elements in the British establishment. ![]() There were a further 2,000 letters of support. Īt Ball's trial in 2015, it was stated that a member of the royal family, a Lord Justice of Appeal, JPs, Cabinet ministers and public school headmasters-"many dozens" of people-had campaigned to support him in 1993. At the time, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Barbara Mills, decided not to prosecute Ball though the CPS in 2015 said it believed that prosecution in 1993 would have been in the public interest. In 1993, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers said that "sufficient admissible, substantial and reliable evidence" existed that Ball had committed indecent assault and gross indecency. Bishop of Gloucester, police caution and resignation Īfter having been translated to the see of Gloucester in 1992, Ball resigned from his position as Bishop of Gloucester in 1993 after admitting to an act of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man and accepting a formal police caution for it. Official inquiries into prolonged failure to prevent child abuse in the Diocese of Chichester, of which Lewes is part, brought up allegations against Ball, of which he was later convicted. He was ordained a bishop on 18 October 1977, by Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, at St Paul's Cathedral. Whilst prior of CGA, he combined his duties as a member of a religious order with several other pastoral roles, including three years as vicar of the Church of the Holy Angels, Hoar Cross, in Staffordshire.īall was suffragan Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to 1992. This brought many young boys who were novice monks into his care over the years. In 1960 he and his identical twin brother, Michael, founded a monastic community, the Community of the Glorious Ascension (CGA), of which he was prior until his ordination to the episcopate. He then received basic monastic training at Kelham Theological College. He began his ministry as a curate in Rottingdean. and ordained a priest the Trinity following (16 June 1957), both times by George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, at Chichester Cathedral. Ordained ministry īall was ordained in the Church of England: made a deacon on Trinity Sunday 1956 (27 May) He entered Wells Theological College in 1954 and received two years of training in preparation for ordination. He then studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1954 as per convention, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1958. He was educated at Lancing College, a public school in Lancing, West Sussex. He was released on licence in February 2017 and died two years later.īall was born on 14 February 1932. Further charges of indecently assaulting two boys, aged 13 and 15, were allowed to lie on file in a contentious decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). ![]() In October 2015, Ball was sentenced to 32 months' imprisonment for misconduct in public office and indecent assault after admitting the abuse of 18 young men over a period of 15 years from 1977 to 1992. He was the suffragan Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to 1992 and the diocesan Bishop of Gloucester from 1992 to 1993, when he resigned after being cautioned for sexual abuse he continued to officiate at several churches after that. In 1960 he and his twin brother ( Michael Ball) established a monastic community, the Community of the Glorious Ascension, through which Ball came into contact with many boys and young men. Peter Ball CGA (14 February 1932 – 21 June 2019) was a British bishop in the Church of England and convicted sex offender. Misconduct in public office, indecent assault
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