CofE case ‘highlights need for prompt, full investigations of abuse allegations’

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned yesterday after a review found that his failure to report abuse to police in 2013 hampered the abuser being brought to justice and resulted in a missed opportunity to determine whether he still posed a threat in South Africa where he then lived. Welby has said he was told in 2013 that a report had been made to police. It had not.

A review by Keith Makin found that lawyer John Smyth conducted sexual, physical and psychological abuse of 30 boys in England and 85 in Zimbabwe and other countries in Africa. Smyth died in 2018 awaiting extradition to the UK for charges relating to the abuse.

A report into his activity was first made in 1982 but was not made public until 2016. Makin’s report said that had action been taken in 1982 it could have prevented later abuse.

“Church officers knew of the abuses in this period and should, even by standards of that time, have reported this to the police,” said the report (16MB / 253-page PDF). “These Church officers were aware that the abuse was in breach of the law at that time.”

“John Smyth could and should have been reported for his abuses then and this would have led to a different set of outcomes, even if he was not prosecuted at that time. Everything else that unfolded thereafter was as a direct result of this decision to hide the abuse. Some of these people were Church officers and include Chaplains at Winchester College and ordained Clergy engaged with the Iwerne camps,” it said.

The report said that evidence shows Smyth was ‘advised’ to move abroad. “He was enabled to move to Zimbabwe, with financial support from a wide range of sources, and this continued beyond the 1980s with financial contributions from Church officers and others,” it said.

“A decision was actively made by [a] small group to cover the abuses up. The reasons given for this cover-up have been analysed in this Review and the conclusion reached is that they were not legitimate,” it said.

Welby knew about the abuse in 2013. “When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow,” he said in a statement announcing his resignation. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.”

Safeguarding specialist at Pinsent Masons Julian Diaz-Rainey said: “John Smyth's activities were identified in the 1980s and the Makin Review concludes that the steps taken by the Church of England and other organisations and individuals in response to these allegations were ineffective. This case clearly demonstrates the crucial importance of fully investigating safeguarding failures and allegations of abuse as soon as they arise.”