Church response 'inadequate' over sex abuse bishop

An independent review has found that senior figures in the Church of England "colluded" with a former bishop who abused young men.

The former bishop of Lewes and bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball, was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 for sex offences carried out between the 1970s and 1990s.

Dame Moira Gibb's review criticised the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey.

She explained to Mark Mardell on Radio 4's World at One that "as the leader of the Church of England he set the tone for the church's wholly inadequate response to Ball".

Dame Moira added that we must all be "thoughtful about the possibility of abuse" and not assume that someone who, like Peter Ball, was seen as "charismatic and holy" couldn't possibly have carried out these actions.

22 June 2017