November 7, 2024

Over forty years, says the Makin review, John Smyth became “arguably the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England.”

John Smyth, a distinguished lawyer and friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been described as the Church of England’s most prolific serial abuser in an official investigation into his activities.

Channel 4 News revealed in 2017 That Smyth groomed boys and young men at Christian summer camps, universities and Winchester College before subjecting them to brutal beatings.

Following our investigation, the Church of England commissioned a review led by former social services director Keith Makin. Accusing church officials of a cover-up, it reveals the horrific scale of decades of abuse in the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

And the failures of senior church leaders, including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, are also egregious.

Over four decades, the review says, John Smyth became “arguably the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England”, operating in “three different countries” and involving “up to 130 boys and young men”.

A priest prepared a secret report into Smyth’s abuse in 1982. But the Makin review says senior members of the church participated in a ‘cover-up’ of the incident.

Within a few years several bishops and “very senior people within the Church of England or those in very senior positions, including Archbishops and Queen’s Chaplains” had learned what was going on.

At the heart of the Makin review is a damning indictment of failures at the top, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It says: “From July 2013 the Church of England was aware at the highest level of abuses that occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s personal Chaplain (a Priest) and the Bishop of Ely were all made aware of the abuse, and Justin Welby became aware of the alleged abuse against John Smyth around August 2013… There was a distinct lack of curiosity in these. senior figures and a tendency to minimize the issue.”

In response to our original investigation, Justin Welby told us: “I really had no idea that something this terrible was going on.. If I had known I would have been very active but I had no doubt. ”

The Makin review notes that this was one of many “false claims” and that “enough information was known after being notified in 2013 for concerns to be raised.”

Smyth’s victims are calling for Justin Welby’s resignation.

Smyth left the UK for Africa in 1984, where he continued his abuse.

The Makin review again criticizes Justin Welby for failing to fulfill his ‘personal and moral responsibility to ensure that church authorities in Cape Town were aware of the dangers’.

At least five police forces in the UK were notified of Smyth’s abuse between 2014 and 2016. Following our initial investigation, Hampshire police reopened their investigation. But the same month they tried to contact him for an interview, Smyth died suddenly in Cape Town in August 2018.

Victims are now demanding that the Church be stripped of responsibility for handling abuse allegations.

This may now be a matter for Archbishop Welby’s successor. Whoever takes over will face a formidable — perhaps impossible — challenge to ensure justice is served for victims of abuse.

We went to Winchester College, former Bishop of Ely and former Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, for comment.