 According to John of Salisbury , who first reported this story in 1172 after the death of Thomas Becket , as a young clerk Roger was involved in a scandal involving a homosexual relationship with a boy named Walter . After Walter made the relationship public , Roger reacted by embroiling Walter in judicial case that ended with Walter 's eyes being gouged out . When Walter then accused Roger of this crime , Roger persuaded a judge to condemn Walter to death by hanging . Becket supposedly was involved in the cover @-@ up afterwards , by arranging with Hilary of Chichester and John of Coutances for Roger to swear an oath that he was innocent . According to John of Salisbury , Roger then went to Rome in 1152 and was cleared of involvement by Pope Eugene III . John of Salisbury further alleges that it was only after bribery that the pope cleared Roger . Frank Barlow , a medieval historian and Becket 's biographer , points out in his biography of Becket that while Roger was accused of these crimes , and may even have been guilty of some sort of criminal homosexuality , John of Salisbury 's motives for bringing up this story in 1172 were almost certainly to defame Roger . Such a story would naturally have put Roger in the worst possible light . 
