The former Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball has been freed from prison after 16 months, according to national newspaper reports.
Ball, 84, was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 after he admitted sexually abusing teenage boys and young men.
Ball, of Aller, near Langport, in Somerset, also admitted misconduct in public office at the Central Criminal Court – better known as the Old Bailey – in London.
The former Lancing College pupil, who started his church career as a curate in Rottingdean, carried out the abuse during the 15 years that he spent as Bishop of Lewes – from 1977 to 1992.
A year later he resigned as Bishop of Gloucester after accepting a caution for sexually assaulting a teenage boy called Neil Todd.
Mr Todd took his own life in 2012 before Ball’s protracted professions of innocence finally crumbled.
The former bishop is understood to have been released from prison on Friday (3 February)
Solicitor and child abuse expert Richard Scorer said that those who protected him had still not been held accountable.
A year ago the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Wells commissioned an independent review led by Dame Moira Gibb into how the Church of England had dealt with the allegations against Ball.
The church has apologised for its failings in the case and, since Ball’s conviction, it has banned him from the ministry for life.
Apologies made lessons learnt that old chestnut.What about the ruined and lost lives?