Prince Charles defends pedophile bishop Peter Ball in private letters

Private letters have revealed Prince Charles complained of the ‘monstrous wrongs’ done to a disgraced sex offender.

Prince Charles visits 617 Squadron on Friday.

The Prince of Wales complained of the “monstrous wrongs” done to a disgraced sex offender bishop in private letters obtained by a public inquiry.

Extracts from a 20-year correspondence between Prince Charles and Peter Ball were read on Friday at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) on the last day of hearings into the case.

“I wish I could do more,” the prince wrote to Ball in 1995. “I feel so desperately strongly about the monstrous wrongs that have been done to you and the way you have been treated.”

The letter was written two years after Ball had admitted gross indecency against a 17-year-old novice monk, accepted a police caution and resigned as Bishop of Gloucester.

The IICSA is examining whether public figures helped Ball to avoid a criminal trial in the 1990s. The bishop, now 86, was eventually convicted in 2015 of sex offences against 13 young men and jailed. Police investigations and a number of inquiries have found no evidence that the prince, unlike other public figures, intervened in the criminal process when Ball was under investigation. The letters were provided to the IICSA by Clarence House and Lambeth Palace.

He did, however, speak to Lord Carey of Clifton, then Archbishop of Canterbury, about Ball’s wishes to return to public ministry in the church. The prince wrote in 1995: “It’s appalling that [he] has gone back on what he told me . . . that he was hoping to restore you to some form of ministry in the church.

“I suspect you are absolutely right - it is due to fear of the media. If it is any consolation, the Archbishop has written me a letter (between you and me) in which it is also clear that he is frightened of the press - what he calls ‘public perception’, which in fact [means], perception of events and characters based entirely on lies, invention, speculation and sensation.”

The prince, who helped Ball financially, was also being kept informed of progress by the Duchy of Cornwall in finding a house for the cleric.

The last extract released dates from 2012 and refers to a phone call from the prince to Ball after a new police investigation had begun.

In his evidence to the inquiry, revealed by The Times last week, the prince expressed “deep personal regret” that he had been deceived by Ball. He said he did not know “until recently that a caution in fact carries an acceptance of guilt”.

Richard Scorer, solicitor for five of Ball’s victims, said evidence heard at the IICSA “will do little to dissuade survivors from the conclusion that the British establishment aided and protected Ball and even now have failed to give a transparent account of their actions.”

- The Times