Peter Ball

Peter Ball (14 February 1932 – 21 June 2019) was a British bishop in the Church of England and convicted sex offender. 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.

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 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. 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). He was released on licence in February 2017 and died two years later.

Early life Ball was born on 14 February 1932. He was educated at Lancing College, a public school in Lancing, West Sussex. and ordained a priest the Trinity following (16 June 1957), both times by George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, at Chichester Cathedral. He began his ministry as a curate in Rottingdean in Brighton. He then received basic monastic training at Kelham Theological College. 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.

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. 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. Keith Porteous Wood, the executive director of the National Secular Society (NSS), believes this was an orchestrated campaign. Wood wants to find out who was behind the alleged campaign and also wants to see copies of relevant letters examined and a comprehensive list obtained of callers and writers, particularly of high profile and influential campaigners. There has been a call for the Goddard Inquiry to look into why Ball was not prosecuted in 1993.

Retirement After his resignation, Ball was given accommodation at Manor Lodge, Aller, Somerset, on the Duchy of Cornwall estate of Charles, Prince of Wales. George Carey, who was then Archbishop of Canterbury, allowed Ball to continue officiating as a priest after his resignation, but not as a bishop – he could still celebrate the Eucharist, but not ordain clergy or confirm. He was granted permission to officiate in the Diocese of Bath and Wells from 2001 to 2010. Peter Hancock, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, was critical of Ball being allowed to serve in the Langport area after his retirement.

Trial and conviction for sexual abuse In 2007, Peter Halliday, a choirmaster in Guildford in Surrey, who had told the church that he had abused children in the 1990s but was allowed to continue working with children, was convicted of three counts of sexual abuse of children and police were concerned that there had been many more cases.

In light of this event and the public airing of the church's bad handling of Halliday, as well as two other high profile sexual abuse convictions, the House of Bishops decided in May 2007 to ask the Central Safeguarding Liaison Group to hold a review of past cases throughout the Church of England, which was carried out starting in 2008. The Diocese of Chichester and the Sussex Police also began investigating long-standing allegations of sexual abuse in East Sussex.

In 2008, Colin Pritchard, a vicar in Bexhill-on-Sea, was convicted of sexually abusing two boys; The Guardian described it as the "breakthrough case" for dealing with sexual abuse in the diocese.

In 2010, the past cases review was published.

In 2011, the Diocese of Chichester asked Baroness Butler-Sloss to conduct an independent review of the way the Pritchard and Cotton cases were handled by the Chichester diocese; the report was published in 2012, and was severely criticized when it was released. In 2014 Phil Johnson, who by that time was a member of the National Safeguarding Panel for the Church of England, and who had been abused by Cotton and Pritchard and had given testimony to Baroness Butler-Sloss during her 2011 inquiry, made it public that he had told her about abuse by Ball and that she had chosen to omit that from her report. After the police investigation of the 20-year-old matters, Ball and another priest, Vickery House, were arrested in November 2012. Ball was released the same day on medical advice, to be interviewed by police at a later date for questioning about offences "allegedly committed against eight boys and young men, all of whom were at [the] time in their late teens or early twenties, except one who was 12." Three days later, police announced that a further seven people had come forward with allegations of abuse by Ball.

On 27 March 2014, Jaswant Narwal, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service South East, announced that based on review of evidence gathered by Sussex Police, they would seek to prosecute Ball on three charges relating to the time when he served as a bishop: Misconduct in public office between 1977 and 1992 Indecent assault on a boy, aged 12 or 13, in 1978 Indecent assault on a man, aged 19 or 20, between 1980 and 1982

On 8 September 2015, Ball pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault and one of misconduct in a public office. His trial began on 5 October 2015. Two charges of indecently assaulting two boys in their early teens, perhaps the most serious alleged offences, were allowed to lie on file in a deal with CPS lawyers.

Bobbie Cheema, QC, said for the prosecution: [Ball] was highly regarded as a godly man who had a special affinity with young people. The truth was that he used those 15 years in the position of bishop to identify, groom and exploit sensitive and vulnerable young men who came within his orbit. For him, religion was a cloak behind which he hid in order to satisfy his sexual interest in those who trusted him. He was eligible for parole after 18 months, and served under a month for each victim. The late Neil Todd's partner, Marc Hawley, said:

Many victims have claimed severe lasting harm and Civil Court action against the Diocese of Chichester was lodged in October 2015. A Church of England priest said that when he was a teenager Ball had tried to make him have sex considered an "act of commitment" as a condition of being ordained. There are allegations of serious corruption and cover-ups within the Church of England regarding Ball's abuse.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, ordered an independent review of the way the Church of England dealt with Ball's case, but the Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors group and Keith Porteous Wood were unsure if the investigation would be sufficiently far-reaching. Wood accused a former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, of encouraging the cover-up and Carey has been quoted stating:

Wood commended Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, for initiating the inquiry. Carey insists he only contacted the CPS after Ball had been cautioned. The Church of England reported in 2015 that the operation leading to Ball's arrest was a direct result of concerns raised by the church to the police in 2012: The review ordered by Welby produced its report, An Abuse of Faith, on 22 June 2017, which found that senior figures in the Church of England had colluded over twenty years with Ball—Welby said it made harrowing reading, adding "The church colluded and concealed rather than seeking to help those who were brave enough to come forward. This is inexcusable and shocking behaviour". There was a long delay between the first complaints to the police over House and a proper police investigation.

Ball was released from prison on licence in February 2017, after having served half of his sentence.

After the trial On 16 December 2015, the BBC published a report on the Ball affair. Cliff James had told the BBC that he informed a cleric in 1992 about abuse he had suffered. James alleges three bishops later telephoned his contact urging her to discourage him and another stated victim from going to the police or to the media. Thirteen different bishops allegedly took no action after a person in the church raised concerns. Ball's housekeeper and gardener, Christine and Michael Moss, said that bishops ignored their concerns over Ball. Moss said, "What upsets me so much is the Church did nothing." BBC reporter Colin Campbell stated that during 20 years three different police forces tried to access information the Church of England held about Ball but investigations started only in 2012. Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester, said he would call the above a cover up and, "in terms of our practice today, that would immediately be the trigger for disciplinary action."

On 23 February 2016, the BBC published information about documents they discovered suggesting Ball's defence team tried during the 1990s to negotiate with the police and avoid a public trial. Ball promised to resign as bishop, leave Britain and retire to a French convent. Ball, however, stayed active as a priest until 2010 and remained in the United Kingdom.

The Church of England confirmed that Ball stood in for his twin brother, Bishop Michael Ball, at services and official duties on several occasions in the 1990s. Michael Ball has said that those attending such occasions had been informed of the substitution, but the report An Abuse of Faith (sections 4.3.5-4.3.8) found cases where those attending were not informed, adding "we have received no evidence to corroborate the assertion that anyone was ever advised that Peter Ball was attending an event in the place of his brother". The review had been criticised because, among other reasons, it would take place behind closed doors and lack what was considered necessary transparency, and because it did not "specifically include the questionable role played by the Church in bringing undue influence to bear on the administration of justice concerning Ball's abuse".

Sawyer stated in April 2016 that he was refusing to co-operate with the review because alleged bullying by high-ranking current church office holders would not be investigated. Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society said:

Gibb published her report in June 2017.

The remit of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse includes investigation of the Church of England, and specifically of the Ball case and other cases in the Diocese of Chichester.

Proposed conversion to Roman Catholicism It was reported in 2017, after his release from prison, that Ball and his twin brother were seeking to join the Roman Catholic Church, in order to "live and worship in anonymity and without constant fear".

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The IICSA was investigating the Peter Ball case in 2018, and asked Prince Charles (later King Charles III) and his principal private secretary to give witness statements about Ball, for a hearing starting on 23 July 2018. Charles, who had been in correspondence with Ball, indicated his willingness to assist.

William Chapman, a barrister representing some of the survivors, said, "The story of Peter Ball is the story of the establishment at work in modern times. It is the story of how the establishment minimised the nature of Peter Ball's misdeeds … and silenced and harassed those who tried to complain.... [Ball had the] willing assistance of members of the establishment. It included the heir to the throne, the archbishop and a senior member of the judiciary, to name only the most prominent....The alacrity and the extent of the response by Peter Ball's friends to one of their own in trouble was impressive. It makes a horrible contrast to the way Peter Ball's victims were treated....These establishment helpers claim they were duped by Peter Ball … But you will have to consider if it is credible, given what they must have known or could easily have found out about Peter Ball, whether they were really as ignorant as they claimed they were about the nature of Peter Ball's activities. Some claimed they did not know what a caution meant. Well, Prince Charles has many advisers; he only had to ask. So does the archbishop of Canterbury." Chapman added that Ball's friends worked against the criminal process. "They went far beyond the normal obligations of friendship."

Death Peter Ball died aged 87, at home in Langport on 21 June 2019, from injuries sustained in a fall at home.

In popular media In January 2020, the BBC broadcast Exposed: The Church's Darkest Secret, a two-part story of the individuals who brought Ball to justice and the cover-up that reached to the highest levels of the Church of England. Donald Sumpter portrayed Ball in dramatised scenes for that documentary.

Selected works