Welby said that when he was informed in 2013 about the “heinous abuses” carried out by Smyth, he was told that the police had been notified and he believed “wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow”.
He added that an independent review into the church’s handling of the allegations about Smyth by Keith Makin, a former director of social services, had exposed a “long-maintained conspiracy of silence”.
The late Church of England official John Smyth.Credit: Channel 4 News
Makin’s report detailed the brutal abuse of more than 130 boys and young men committed by Smyth over 40 years, starting at Christian summer camps in Hampshire in the 1970s and continuing in Zimbabwe, where he settled in 1984, and South Africa, where he lived until his death in 2018.
Welby attended the Iwerne Christian summer camps in Hampshire where Smyth began physically and sexually abusing boys and young men in the 1970s and made donations to similar camps the barrister ran after moving to Africa.
Makin’s report gave an account of Welby’s long-standing acquaintance with Smyth and said he had been warned about his character. But it found no evidence the archbishop was aware of the severity of Smyth’s abuses at the time. Welby said the exact timing of when he would stand down and be replaced would now be reviewed.
“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024,” Welby said, adding that his stepping aside was “in the best interests of the church”.
“The last few days have renewed my long-felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England. For nearly 12 years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.”
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
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