During his 11 years as Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby presided over royal weddings and funerals while also trying to hold together the divided Anglican Communion.

But it was a scandal that began before his time as head of the Church of England that led to his downfall.

The review into the “prolific, brutal and appalling” abuse by John Smyth concluded that Mr Welby had failed to make sufficient efforts to formally alert authorities about it; This meant that the lawyer never faced justice for the crimes he committed over the decades.

Mr Welby knew Smyth in the 1970s and 80s and, the Makin Review noted, “had reason to have some misgivings about him on all counts”.

It concluded that this was “not the same as” suspecting Smyth of committing “gross misconduct” and that it was “not possible to establish” whether Mr Welby knew of the seriousness of the abuses in the UK before 2013.

The review said Mr Welby “became aware of the alleged abuse against John Smyth” four months after he was appointed to the top job at the church in March 2013.

The review made clear that Smyth “could and should have been” formally reported to authorities in the UK and South Africa by Mr Welby that year.

“Had this been done, on the balance of probabilities, John Smyth could have been brought to justice at a much earlier point,” the review said, adding that the opportunity to establish whether he continued to pose a threat in South Africa had been missed. from these inactions”.

Mr Welby, who initially refused to resign after the critical report was published, faced days of pressure from abuse victims as well as a bishop who described his position as untenable.

Five days later, Mr Welby issued a statement saying he took “personal and corporate responsibility for the long and re-traumatizing period between 2013 and 2024” and announced he would quit.

Mr. Welby had an 11-year career in the oil industry before being ordained in 1992.

He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury at a service at Canterbury Cathedral in March 2013.

As well as being a church leader in England, he is the spiritual leader of approximately 85 million people worldwide in what is known as the Anglican Communion.

He sits in the House of Lords and has been outspoken on political issues such as child poverty, condemning two “draconian” child benefit policies and assisted dying; He warned that legalizing them could lead to a “slippery slope”.

Mr Welby also strongly criticized the previous Conservative government’s plan to send asylum seekers who crossed the Channel in small boats to Rwanda, warning that it was “taking the country down a damaging path”.

Shortly afterwards, he gave a speech alluding to his own experiences of being trolled online, talking about the disadvantages of social media and criticizing society’s “absolutely appalling” attitude towards forgiveness, in an apparent reference to cancel culture.

On this occasion Mr Welby said: “We all know, I know especially now, I will not go into this, I will not go into the debates in Parliament – but we know this now: what it is to be trolled, what it is to be threatened.”

Faith served as a “safety net” for the church leader, who spoke of personal experiences with depression that led him to experience “self-hatred, self-contempt, real, intense self-dislike.”

In a series of lectures at Canterbury Cathedral to mark Holy Week in April 2023, the archbishop said taking antidepressants helped him “react like the average person”.

Using the Winnie-the-Pooh analogy, he said antidepressants “took me back from a much worse state to an Eeyore state.”

In 2016, Mr Welby revealed his biological father was the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne, Sir Winston Churchill’s last private secretary.

He said at the time he believed his father was Gavin Welby raising him, which came as a “complete surprise” based on DNA evidence.

Her mother, Lady Williams of Elvel, described the revelation as “an almost unbelievable shock”, but added that she remembered getting into bed with Sir Anthony “fueled by large amounts of alcohol on both sides”.

Mr. Welby said in a statement at the time: “I know that who I am is not in genetics but in Jesus Christ, and my identity in Him never changes.”

Gavin Welby died “due to alcohol and cigarettes” in 1977, when the archbishop was 21; Lady Williams died in July 2023 at the age of 93.

He also struggled with alcoholism, and Mr Welby has previously said “my early life was chaotic because of my parents’ addictions”.

In October 2024, he revealed that one of his ancestors owned slaves on a plantation in Jamaica.

A recent trip to the country “helped me confront the legacy of slavery in the Caribbean,” he said.

Mr Welby said his great-great-great-grandfather Sir James Fergusson, an ancestor of his biological father Sir Anthony, owned enslaved people on the Rozelle Plantation in St Thomas, Jamaica.

He also spoke fondly of his own family, remembering his “extraordinarily precious” daughter Ellie, who is neurodiverse.

In his role as church leader, Mr Welby has been front and center at major state events, most notably the King’s coronation in 2023.

He anointed and crowned Charles, admitting in advance that the thought gave him “nightmares”, saying: “I dreamed that we had arrived at (the coronation) and that I was leaving the crown at Lambeth Palace.”

In September last year, the late Queen Elizabeth II. He officiated at Elizabeth’s funeral and told mourners at Westminster Abbey that the monarch touched “many lives” and was a “joyful” figure to many.

Mr Welby also officiated at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding in 2018 and has christened some of the royal children over the years.

In May 2023, just days after the King’s coronation, Mr Welby was found guilty of speeding.

On October 2, 2022, Lambeth was ordered to pay a total of £510 for exceeding the 20 mph limit in the borough of Kennington. He admitted the offense online, was fined £300 and ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge and £90 costs.

Within the church, the archbishop had to deal with division over the issue of blessing homosexuals.

Following a 2023 vote in favor of the move, an organization representing some Anglican churches questioned his suitability to lead.

While the Fellowship of Anglican Churches of the Global South criticized the adoption of the motion, others have consistently argued that the church has not gone far enough and should allow same-sex marriage.

Mr Welby spoke several times during a lengthy Synod debate on the issue and acknowledged there was a “very painful” disagreement on the issue within the church.