Paedophile bishop Peter Ball mentioned friendship with Prince Charles to seem “impregnable”, victim claims
The disgraced paedophile bishop Peter Ball repeatedly mentioned his friendship with Prince Charles so he would seem “impregnable”, one of his victims has said.
In 2015 Ball, the former bishop of both Lewes and Gloucester was convicted of sexual offences against 17 teenagers and young men - one of whom took his own life. He was released from prison in February 2017 after serving half of his 32-month sentence. He died aged 87 in June 2019.
Speaking in a new documentary, part two of which airs tonight on BBC Two, one of Ball’s victims, Cliff James, who has waived his right to anonymity, spoke of how Ball would boast about his relationship with the heir to the throne.
“He kept mentioning his friendship with Prince Charles in a flippant way, [in the way] anyone would talk about a friend - but he’s talking about Prince Charles” Mr James said.
“Here he was having a friendship with somebody as low down as me…[and] the next minute he’s dropping into the conversation, ‘oh he’s counsellor to royalty’.
“It just reinforced his specialness and the idea that he was impregnable.”
Another of Ball’s victims, Neil Todd - who had been abused by Ball in the 1990s, killed himself shortly after Ball was arrested.
In May the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published its damning investigation into Ball as it criticised Prince Charles for his “misguided” friendship with the paedophile.
The report revealed how he “seemed to relish contact with prominent and influential people” and particularly sought to use his friendship with the Prince of Wales “to further his campaign to return to unrestricted ministry” after he received a police caution in 1992.
In 2012, Sussex police reopened their historic investigation into Ball. He remains the most senior Church of England figure to face claims of child abuse.
Part two of the documentary entitled, Exposed: The Church’s Darkest Secret, aires tonight on BBC Two.
