" The Prince of Wales is to provide evidence to a child sex abuse inquiry after facing questions about his correspondence with a paedophile bishop.

The Prince has been asked for a witness statement ahead of hearings at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse about disgraced bishop Peter Ball.

The former bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester was sent to prison for 32 months in 2015 after he admitted abusing 18 teenagers and young men between the 1970s and 1990s.

His abuse was first reported to the police in 1992 but charges were not brought and instead Ball accepted a caution and resigned.

The Prince of Wales had exchanged letters with Ball, who claimed he had the status of "confidant" to the heir to the throne, an independent inquiry found last year.

In 2015 Ball's sentencing hearing heard that the CPS had received two thousand letters of support for the bishop "including letters from cabinet ministers and Royal family" when it was first investigating his crimes in 1992.

The relevant member of the Royal family was not named.

Leading counsel to the inquiry Fiona Scolding QC said the inquiry would examine whether "improper pressure" was placed on the police, CPS and Church of England by "individuals who were prominent in public life".

She said her team had "requested a witness statement from both His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and his principal private secretary".

She added that the Prince's lawyers had "indicated their client's willingness to assist us and have raised a number of important issues for us to consider.

"This has led to lengthy and complex discussions and we are currently considering the latest points they have raised. We hope to be able to provide an update to core participants on this in the next couple of weeks."

After his resignation the bishop rented a house on the Prince of Wales’s Duchy of Cornwall estate. He was subsequently allowed to continue officiating.

At the time of the 2015 hearing a spokesman for Clarence House said: “The Prince of Wales made no intervention in the judicial process on behalf of Peter Ball.”

Last year Moira Gibb's review into Ball's offending found that he tried to use his contact with the Prince of Wales as leverage to influence the decisions made by then Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey. Ball "sought to exploit his contact with members of the Royal family in order to bolster his position, particularly in the eyes of Lord Carey and others from whom he hoped to receive sympathetic treatment," the report found.

In a statement a Clarence House spokesman said: "IICSA has asked The Prince of Wales if he can help the part of their Inquiry that deals with Mr Peter Ball.

"Whilst The Prince has made it clear that he was unaware of the extent of Mr Ball’s behaviour, he has indicated that he is more than willing to provide context on his contact with Mr Ball, as his former local Bishop, if that would help the Inquiry."

Lawyer Richard Scorer from Slater and Gordon, who is representing complainants at the IICSA, said it should "leave no stone unturned".

"If this means calling Prince Charles and other prominent establishment figures as witnesses then the inquiry should do so without fear or favour."

Link to article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/06/06/prince-wales-set-provide-evidence-child-sex-abuse-inquiry-letters/