Police consider investigation into former archbishop as CofE braced for more revelations of abuse cover-up

Mar 5, 2018 by Jill

by Harry Farley, Christian Today:

The Church of England is bracing itself for more revelations of how senior figures covered up child sex abuse with police considering whether to press charges against the former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

Anglican leaders will come under the most intense scrutiny they have faced over their handling of abuse allegations as the Church goes before the independent inquiry into child sex abuse for the next three weeks.

Police are considering whether to launch an investigation against the former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, after he was forced to step down as an honorary bishop last year. Carey was found to have ‘colluded’ with a convicted sex abuser Peter Ball, the former bishop of Gloucester and Lewes.

When Ball was finally jailed in 2015 he was sentenced to 15 months for indecent assaults against a string of young men and also 32 months for misconduct in public office, opening up the possibility that other senior clergy could be jailed for their role in abuse.

A report by Dame Moira Gibb was highly critical of Carey’s conduct while in office, finding that he received seven letters warning of Ball’s abuse in 1992 but failed to pass six of them onto the police.

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