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. 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 entered Wells Theological College in 1954 and received two years of training in preparation for ordination.
Ordained ministry Ball was ordained in the Church of England, made a deacon on Trinity Sunday 1956 (27 May) 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.Debrett's People of Today (1992, London, Debrett's) 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. This brought many young boys who were novice monks into his care over the years. 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.
Bishop of Lewes Ball was suffragan Bishop of Lewes from 1977 to 1992. He was ordained a bishop on 18 October 1977, by Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, at St Paul's Cathedral.
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.
Bishop of Gloucester, police caution and resignation 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. 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. 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.
At 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. There were a further 2,000 letters of support. The Reverend Graham Sawyer, an abuse victim, wants a full investigation and blames corrupt elements in the British establishment. Sawyer believes that the establishment is still too strong and its links with the church should be investigated. 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."
David 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. It seems Peter Ball has been able to do that.""Bishop Ball sex charges caution 'wrong' admits CPS", BBC News. 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."Former Anglican bishop Peter Ball jailed as victims sue Church of England over 'cover-up'", Secularism.org website.
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."Former bishop admits sexually abusing young men", The Guardian (London), 8 September 2015. 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."Bishop of Bath and Wells: Bishop Peter Ball should not have been allowed to serve in Langport area", Western Gazette.
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. Roy Cotton, a priest in the Chichester diocese died in 2006 but allegations of abuse by him emerged shortly thereafter. In 2018, Pritchard, who had by then changed his name to Ifor Whittaker, was convicted of further sexual abuse that was carried out in collaboration with Cotton.
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. In May 2012, the review and historic files about Ball were given to the Sussex Police.
Ann Lawrence from the Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors organisation described the opening of the police investigation as "a major first step" for the Church of England. Abuse victim Neil Todd, who later died by suicide, said that: 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. Keith Porteous Wood sees this as yet another example of the law enforcement system repeatedly treating Ball leniently.
Bobbie Cheema, QC, said for the prosecution:
At the Old Bailey on 7 October, Mr Justice Wilkie sentenced Ball to 32 months in prison. He was eligible for parole after 18 months,"Prison for Bishop Peter Ball, but victims still seek justice", Church Times, 9 October 2015. and served under a month for each victim."Peter Ball - jailed for just one month for each victim", The Argus. 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."Bishop Peter Ball sex abuse victims sue Church of England", BBC News, 6 October 2015. 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. The Guardian's crime correspondent, Sandra Laville, also wrote that Carey knew of the cover-up. Ruth Gledhill, writing in Christian Today, said that Carey intervened personally over the matter. Carey insists he only contacted the CPS after Ball had been cautioned. Abuse survivor Graham Sawyer, who alleges decades of pressure from the Church of England to silence him, believes that the church should no longer police itself."'Deeply corrupt' Church of England tried to silence me, abuse victim claims", ITV. 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".