Family of lawyer accused of beating boys demanded he stopped working with children

Family members of a barrister  accused of subjecting boys to savage sadomasochistic beatings tried to stop him working with children, it has emerged.

John Smyth QC, a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is accused of abusing teenagers in both Britain and Zimbabwe, having run Christian holiday camps in both countries.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that his brother-in-law and sister-in-law both resigned from the trust that oversaw his mission in Zimbabwe, in protest at his refusal to stop working with children.

Mr Smyth’s brother, Christopher, is also said to have told the barrister to stop his work with young people after becoming aware of the beating claims.

The part-time judge moved to Zimbabwe in 1984, after allegations emerged that he had beaten 22 young men in his garden shed in Winchester, having persuaded them it would help purge them of their sins.

After moving to Africa, Mr Smyth set up the Zambezi Trust, which was modelled on the work he had carried out in Britain and ran holiday camps for boys from the nation’s elite public schools.

In 1989, the headmaster of Winchester College published a book in which he referred to the beating allegations involving Mr Smyth, identifying him only as the school’s “neighbouring barrister”.

Mr Smyth immediately wrote to the trustees of the Zambezi Trust, who included Janet Brooks, sister of the barrister’s wife, Anne, and her husband, Jonathan. He claimed he had been “completely dependent on sleeping pills” at the time of his “extraordinary aberration of judgment”.

Minutes from the Zambezi Trust show that Mr Brooks, a leading gynaecological surgeon, and his wife joined the other trustees in writing back, saying they would quit unless he withdrew from “direct personal involvement in youth work” in Zimbabwe.

It is understood that the Brooks had a meeting with Christopher Smyth, also a barrister and part-time judge, and his wife, Jayne, who agreed that Mr Smyth should stop working with children.  However, Mr Smyth rejected the trustees’ ultimatum and the group resigned en masse.

A friend of Mr and Mrs Brooks said: “It was extremely difficult for them, and they were very courageous. Both Jonathan and Janet are very principled people and were not prepared to be involved with something where there might be a risk of unsavoury activities, and that’s why they resigned. They thought he needed treatment.” 

In 1997, Mr Smyth was charged with culpable homicide after a 16-year-old boy was found at the bottom of a swimming pool in 1992. Several boys then came forward to claim he had beaten them with bats and forced them to swim naked as he watched, although both cases against him collapsed.

The Sunday Telegraph yesterday printed a letter from Mr Smyth to parents of boys due to attend a Zambesi Trust camp in 1993. In it, he wrote that he would shower with the boys and planned to use a wooden bat “fairly liberally” in the event of misbehaviour.

The barrister also wrote how he would encourage the boys to skinny- dip. He added: “It is all part of the all-boys-together fun of camp”.

Christopher and Jayne Smyth did not return requests for comment, and nor did Mr and Mrs Brooks.