Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Anglican and Episcopal Chichester and Gloucester, England, United Kingdom · 2015

Bishop Peter Ball: convicted of abusing young men who sought spiritual direction

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Church of England bishop

Organization

Church of England

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The victims were young men who came to Ball, as a bishop, for spiritual direction and discernment of a religious vocation — placing them under his direct pastoral and ecclesiastical authority, which he used to obtain access.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2015-10-07 · guilty plea and sentence; subsequent statutory inquiry

Crown Court, England; IICSA investigation. Former Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester Peter Ball pleaded guilty in 2015 to misconduct in public office and indecent assaults spanning decades against young men who came to him for spiritual guidance. IICSA's dedicated investigation found senior Church figures, including a former Archbishop of Canterbury, had protected him for years despite known allegations.

Documented coercion mechanisms

spiritual direction and vocational discernment used to obtain access
institutional protection by senior church figures

Cited record

Sources

official statutory inquiry report inquiry report IICSA, 'The Anglican Church: Chichester/Peter Ball Investigation Report' (May 2018).: The statutory inquiry records Ball's convictions and the Church hierarchy's protection of him despite known allegations.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

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Source and tier basis: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/anglican-chichester-peter-ball/introduction.html Corpus classification: official-statutory-inquiry-report; evidentiary role: inquiry-report. SHA-256 d53eb7721c37270e15ff136f01b16bed796e3307f4ffe047e90f1f687d78e319
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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