BBC - Exposed: The Church's Darkest Secret (2020)

The story of the individuals who brought Bishop Peter Ball to justice and the cover-up that went to the highest levels of the Church of England.

Episode 1
The story of the decades-long pursuit of Bishop Peter Ball by the individuals determined to bring him to justice. It is also the story of a cover-up that went to the highest levels of the Church of England.

Peter Ball's charisma saw him develop a national profile, make TV appearances on chat shows and claim influential friends in the establishment, including the Prince of Wales. But he was also a manipulative sexual predator abusing numerous teenage boys and young men in his spiritual care, subjecting them to sexual assault and sadistic beatings

Using powerful testimony from victims, police and church officials, and dramatic reconstruction, this series charts the story of those who fought for many years to bring a prosecution against Peter Ball. The films show their bravery and persistence in uncovering the truth while he and other offending Church of England clergy continued to get away with their crimes. Eventually, their efforts led to Bishop Peter Ball becoming the most senior member of the Church to be prosecuted for sex crimes. His story represents many others who abused and a culture within the church which helped them escape justice.

Part one covers the years when Bishop Ball was the establishment's favourite clergyman. His public persona was that of a saintly monk who, when appointed bishop of Lewes in 1977, turned his back on the trappings of office and ran a residential scheme where young people could “spend a year with God”. We hear emotional testimony from some of those who stayed with Ball to explore their faith only to find out he was using his scheme to recruit new victims to abuse.

During this time, Ball was building an influential social circle, including Margaret Thatcher, multiple MPs and members of the royal family. When promoted to become the bishop of Gloucester, he also became the Prince of Wales’s spiritual adviser.

It was while he was the bishop of Gloucester that one of his victims, Neil Todd, was brave enough to disclose Peter Ball's abuse of him to multiple bishops. These senior church officials did nothing to help Neil and did not tell the authorities. His family feared a cover-up in the church and persuaded Neil to go to the police. When publicity surrounding Ball’s subsequent arrest resulted in the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, receiving multiple new allegations of abuse by Peter Ball, bishops at Lambeth Palace withheld them from the police. The detective leading the case tells how Ball’s influential friends and the then Archbishop George Carey contacted him and his fears that they were trying to influence his inquiry.

Despite the very serious abuse suffered by Neil Todd and other young men, the CPS took the unusual step of recommending only a caution on one offence of gross indecency. Ball agreed to resign, but just two years later he was returned to active clerical duties and by 1997 the then Archbishop George Carey said he could be treated like any other retired bishop. Having escaped jail and working once more with the public, back taking services, Peter Ball is alleged to have abused again. But times are changing and he will face a fresh set of investigators when the new millennium starts.

Episode 2
Part Two of this emotional and powerful series covers the story of the survivors of Bishop Peter Ball's abuse and the newly appointed Church Safeguarding Officers who came together to pursue Bishop Peter Ball to his eventual conviction and imprisonment.

By the mid-1990s Bishop Peter was back officiating in church services. George Carey, then the Archbishop of Canterbury, had paid towards Ball's legal costs and a personal holiday with money from the Church, while the victim who alerted the police, Neil Todd, felt shunned by the religious establishment left with no support from the Church.

At this time Bishop Peter Ball was renting a house provided by The Prince of Wales through the Duchy of Cornwall. The Prince also sent supportive letters to Ball, in one case criticising his accusers and would later tell the IICSA - the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse - that he believed Ball to be innocent at that time.

In 2008 Bishop Peter Ball came to the attention of two of the new safeguarding officers brought into the church, who become suspicious of how he is was still being allowed to officiate at church services.

Around this time, Phil Johnson, another survivor approached the police with details of his own terrible abuse. We hear the testimony of how two priests groomed and abused him in Eastbourne during the 70s and 80s when he was a young boy and teenager. The priests' immediate superior was Peter Ball who was then the Bishop of Lewes. Not only was Ball allowing priests in his diocese area to abuse children, we also hear from Phil that he was personally sexually abused by Ball at this time.

The separate efforts of Phil Johnson and the two Church Safeguarding Officers eventually lead to the discovery that the former Archbishop Carey and other high-ranking members of the clergy had stopped Bishop Peter Ball's crimes from coming to public attention. We learn that it was not just letters from other victims that weren't handed over to police during the original investigation into Bishop Peter. Church money had been used to hire a private investigator to discredit Ball's victims though this report had been buried when it honestly reported that Ball was in fact a prolific abuser.

On finally discovering this shocking report, one of the safeguarding officers handed it to the police who decided that Peter Ball was worthy of investigation. Attempts were made to arrest him but Ball's frail health made this impossible and his victims yet again feared he'd escape justice.

Around this time Neil Todd, the young man who so bravely brought the initial allegations to light, took his own life. His family speak movingly of this tragic loss of life and how he could not bear to endure another police investigation, and the prospect of not being believed once again.

Ball was finally charged and eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault and one of misconduct in a public office after admitting the abuse of 18 young men from 1977 to 1992. In October 2015 he was sentenced to 32 months in prison. He served 16 months.

Peter Ball is the most senior sexual criminal in the Church of England to have been imprisoned, but his story represents many others abusers and a culture within the Church which helped them escape justice.