Chris Elliott (Reporting on historical sex abuse allegations requires great care, Open door, 15 February) is mistaken in two points. There has never been any civil claim brought against the late Bishop George Bell. Deceased persons cannot be sued. The claim was against the church, which chose to settle for its own reasons. Bishop Bell was not a defendant. Neither he nor his interests were represented in the out-of-court deal made between the church and his alleged abuser. Secondly, in summarising the review panel’s judgment of my complaint against the Guardian’s coverage of this case, he leaves out the single most crucial passage, in which the panel stated: “Where someone has not been convicted of a criminal charge, as in the instant complaint, it might have been clearer to put the allegation in quotation marks.” This is more or less exactly what I have long been saying the Guardian should have done.
Peter Hitchens
London
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