Letters withheld by ex-Archbishop of Canterbury 'could have helped sex abuse probe'
Lord Carey should have handed over information from victims of disgraced bishop Peter Ball, a former detective has said.
Wednesday 25 July 2018 17:10, UK
Letters withheld by a former Archbishop of Canterbury could have helped the investigation into disgraced bishop Peter Ball, an inquiry has heard.
Wayne Murdock, the former detective who investigated sexual abuse claims against Ball in 1992 and 1993, said it was "common sense" that Lord Carey should have handed over the information from victims.
It comes a day after Lord Carey said he felt "deeply ashamed" that the Church of England failed to act on the allegations against Ball, who was jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing 18 young men over three decades.
An independent report found Lord Carey delayed a "proper investigation" into Ball's crimes for two decades by failing to pass the information to police.
Giving evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Mr Murdock said: "Those letters should have been handed over and they could have made a difference.
"They knew what was going on. My expectation would have been that if you've got anything, you hand it over.
"From the Church, you don't expect information to be withheld. You know, that's really common sense."
Fiona Scolding QC, senior counsel to the inquiry, suggested to Mr Murdock that information given to police by victims - including details about naked prayers and massages - was not materially different to the letters received by Lord Carey.
Mr Murdock replied: "We should have been the judge of that, not the archbishop. He knew we were carrying out investigation and he withheld that information.
"Had we had names, we could have followed up, gone and interviewed them and perhaps we would have got far more out of those people than had been revealed in those letters.
"I was led to believe these letters were far more damaging. Bottom line was those letters should have been passed on for us to look at and pass judgment on what the evidential value was."
Mr Murdock denied Ball received special treatment after he was called to Gloucester Police Station for questioning in 1992 but kept away from the cell block.
The former detective told the inquiry he had wanted to stop the media from finding out about Ball's arrest to prevent interference.
But he added that the news broke after being leaked "undoubtedly from somebody at the police station".
Lord Carey - who oversaw the church at the time of Ball's arrest in December 1992 - told the inquiry on Tuesday that victims had been failed "in a number of different ways".
The inquiry was launched in 2014 to look at the extent to which institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse.