LONDON — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby Church of England The spiritual leader and spiritual leader of the Global Anglican Communion resigned Tuesday after an investigation found he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Pressure on Welby had been mounting since Thursday, when the release of the investigation’s findings sparked anger at the church’s highest levels over a lack of accountability.

“It is clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024,” Welby said in a statement announcing his resignation. “I believe it is in the interests of the Church of England, which I love and have the honor to serve, to step aside.”

The bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, said on Monday Welby’s stance was “indefensible” after some members of the church’s national synod launched a petition calling on him to resign because he had “lost the trust of the clergy”.

But the strongest reaction came from the victims of prominent lawyer John Smyth, who for five decades abused teenage boys and young men at Christian summer camps in Britain, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Andrew Morse, who was beaten repeatedly by Smyth over five years, said the resignation was a chance for Welby to begin repairing the damage caused by the church’s broader handling of historic abuse cases.

“I believe this is an opportunity for him to resign,” Morse told the BBC before Welby resigned. “I say opportunity, in the sense that this will be an opportunity for Smyth to stand up for the victims of his abuse and all the victims who have not been treated properly by the Church of England in their own abuse cases.”

Welby’s resignation took place against the background of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England. A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found that respect for the authority of priests, taboos surrounding discussion of sexuality and a culture that gives alleged perpetrators more support than their victims have helped make the Church of England a “safe haven for abusers” took it out. “It could have been hidden.”

Welby’s supporters have argued that Welby has been instrumental in changing the culture of the church since he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013.

But it was an investigation into crimes that began long before that date that ultimately led to his downfall.

On Thursday the church announced the results of an independent investigation into Smyth, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused around 30 boys and young men in the UK and 85 boys and young men in Africa from the 1970s.

The 251-page report of that investigation, known as the Makin Review, concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, shortly after he became archbishop.

Welby last week took responsibility for not pursuing the allegations as “energetically” as he should have after learning of the abuse, but said he had decided not to resign.

On Monday, Welby’s office released a statement reiterating that stance and expressing “horror at the scale of John Smyth’s appalling abuse.”

Church officials first became aware of the abuse in 1982 when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smyth. The Makin Review found that those who received this report “engaged in an active cover-up” to prevent the findings from coming to light.

Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984 and later moved to South Africa. He continued to abuse boys and young men in Zimbabwe, and there is evidence in South Africa that the abuse continued until his death in August 2018.

Smyth’s abuse was not made public until an investigation by Britain’s Channel 4 television network in 2017, which led to Hampshire police launching an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and were preparing to extradite him.

Stephen Cherry, dean of the chapel at King’s College Cambridge, said Welby could no longer represent the public.

“There are situations where there is something that someone in a key leadership position, someone like an archbishop, has done, where they have essentially lost their trust, confidence and capacity to do a really great thing, like publicly represent everyone at a particular moment in time. Cherry told the BBC before Welby resigned.

“The pain experienced by the victim community and his history of not listening to people and not responding to people who have been deeply hurt by those in power means that this person can no longer carry the representative role of that office.”

Kirka writes for the Associated Press.