Church was 'cruel and sadistic' in its response to sexual abuse, victim of disgraced bishop says

The Reverend Graham Sawyer says treatment he suffered at hands of Peter Ball paled in comparison to reaction from officials

Peter Ball was jailed for 32 months in 2015 for sexually abusing 18 young men over 30 years. (Getty Images)

A vicar who was sexually abused as a teenager by a disgraced bishop said he was met with "cruel and sadistic" treatment when he dared to speak out about his experience.

The Reverend Graham Sawyer said the abuse he suffered at the hands of Peter Ball paled in comparison to the reaction from officials in the Church of England.

He told an inquiry that the church must stop its "ecclesiastical protection racket", in which he said people rally round to protect the church's reputation above the interests of the individual.

Mr Sawyer, a vicar at St James' Church, Briercliffe in the diocese of Blackburn, told how Ball had demanded that the then teenager strip naked before he would recommend him to be ordained.

He refused to do so and withdrew from the ordination.

Some years later when he decided to apply again he was rejected, and a friend who looked into why told him there was a "big black mark against you in the Church of England".

Mr Sawyer, who said Ball had had "the reputation of a living saint", moved to New Zealand where he was ordained in 1998 in Wellington diocese.

The vicar, who has returned to the UK and waived his right to anonymity, told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: "The sex abuse that was perpetrated upon me by Peter Ball pales into insignificance when compared to the entirely cruel and sadistic treatment that has been meted out to me by officials, both lay and ordained.

"I know from the testimony of other people who have got in touch with me over the last five or 10 years that what I have experienced is not dissimilar to the experience of so many others and I use these words cruel and sadistic because I think that is how they behave."

He added: "It is an ecclesiastical protection racket and [the attitude is that] anyone who seeks to in any way threaten the reputation of the church as an institution has to be destroyed."

The inquiry is examining how the Church of England handled allegations of sexual abuse.

In the five-day case study this week, the inquiry is investigating "whether there were inappropriate attempts by people of prominence to interfere in the criminal justice process after he (Ball) was first accused of child sexual offences".

On Tuesday, the inquiry will hear from former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who resigned as honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Oxford after an inquiry found he delayed a "proper investigation" into Ball's crimes for two decades by failing to pass information to police.

A lawyer for Lord Carey told Monday's hearing that the former archbishop would tell the inquiry of his "profound and individual remorse" for past failures in how certain issues were dealt with.

Additional reporting by PA