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Church of England investigating complaint over how Archbishop of Canterbury dealt with abuse claims at Christian camps

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby -  Kirsty O'Connor/PA 
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby - Kirsty O'Connor/PA

The Church of England is investigating how the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby dealt with complaints of serial abuse of young men at Christian holiday camps.

John Smyth QC, the former chair of the Iwerne Trust which funded the camps was alleged to have beaten dozens of young men in the 1970s and 80s.

One of those men has now written to the Church of England launching a formal complaint against Welby, a former dormitory officer at the camps, saying he failed to act properly when he learned of the abuse. The Church confirmed it was reviewing the complaint.

The man says that Archbishop Welby failed to refer the abuse directly to social services and the police, in breach of church guidelines.

Archbishop Welby has always insisted he knew nothing of the allegations until 2013 when the church referred them to the police.

But last night, Channel 4 news reported that the Church is investigating a formal complaint it received last month that the Archbishop failed to act appropriately on the allegations made against Smyth.

John Smyth  -  JUSTICE ALLIANCE OF SOUTH AFRICA
John Smyth - JUSTICE ALLIANCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

In a statement, the Church of England said: “It is in the public domain that when Lambeth was contacted in 2013 about an allegation against Smyth it liaised with the relevant diocese. This was to ensure that the survivor was being supported, police had been informed and that the bishop had contacted the Bishop of Cape Town, where Smyth was then living.

“However, since a formal complaint has now been received by the National Safeguarding Team, it is reviewing information and will obviously respond on this to the person who brought the complaint and take any further action if needed.

“These issues will all be considered by the Makin Review which the Church commissioned last year into the Smyth case and is expected to publish into 2021.”

In 2017 Bishop of Guildford revealed that he was one of 22 young men abused by Mr Smyth, who is accused of savagely beating beatings boys he met at Christian holiday camps in the late Seventies.

The Right Rev Andrew Watson said: “The beating I endured in the infamous garden shed was violent, excruciating and shocking; but it was thankfully a one-off experience never to be repeated.”

An open letter to the Most Rev Welby, endorsed by eight alleged victims of John Smyth QC, calls on the Archbishop to come clean about the extent of his knowledge of the abuse claims.

Archbishop Welby, who worked as a dormitory officer on camps run the Iwerne Trust, which Mr Smyth chaired from 1974 to 1981, has insisted he was “completely unaware” of the claims against the part-time judge until 2013.

Mr Smyth died in 2018.

When confronted over the allegations by Channel 4 in 2017, he said: “I’m not talking about what we did at all”.

He called some of the claims "nonsense" and declined to respond to further requests.