Charles’ friendship with yet another pedocriminal

Victims of paedophile bishop Peter Ball, left, have demanded that correspondence between himself and  Prince Charles, right, is made public although Clarence House insists there is nothing in the letters which is relevant into the church’s handling of Ball’s case

It is not clear what role, if any, they will play in the inquiry which is examining the Church’s handling of the Ball case, but Charles has not given any evidence to it either formally or informally nor has he or his team been asked to.

The content of the letters is unknown, but in a statement yesterday, Clarence House said they believed there was nothing in them which pertained to the case.

A spokesman for the prince said: ‘We do not believe that the letters have any bearing on the issues before the inquiry, but we have not objected to them being shared for their consideration.’

Royal sources insist it would be perfectly normal for the future king to write to the priest, who in 1992 became Bishop of Gloucester, the diocese in which Charles’ country home, Highgrove, sits.

One said that the existence of letters between the two simply reflected their ‘long-standing acquaintance’.

It is not clear if the prince continued to write to Ball after his well-publicised earlier arrest and police caution for gross indecency against a 17-year-old boy in 1993.

Ball escaped prosecution for this offence, despite investigators knowing of ‘many’ more allegations against him, after the police received dozens of supportive letters and calls from MPs, former public headmasters, JPs and even a Lord Chief Justice.

At the time his lawyers also told the police they had a letter of support from a member of the Royal Family, but prosecutors said they had not seen this correspondence and there is no evidence that this letter even existed.

However, Ball clearly did continue to enjoy cordial relations with the royals as he read the homily at the funeral of the father of the Duchess of Cornwall in 2006.

By Tom Kelly and Rebecca English for the Daily Mail

PUBLISHED: 23:59, 26 January 2017 | UPDATED: 01:06, 27 January 2017

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4162372/Prince-Charles-wrote-padeophile-bishop.html#ixzz4Wxfm7jH4
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