John Smyth excommunicated from South African church

John Smyth has been expelled from the church in South Africa where he had been living after church leaders said he refused to return to the UK and engage with police. 

The former QC is accused of beating boys at Christian holiday camps which he ran in the UK in the late 1970s. 

He moved to Zimbabwe and then South Africa, where he had been worshipping at the Church-on-Main in Cape Town.

But last month the church's leaders published a statement on its website saying that Mr Smyth and his wife Anne had been expelled. 

In the statement, signed by the church's elders, they said they found it "necessary to excommunicate John and Anne from Church on Main, with all of its full scriptural implications".

The statement claimed he had been "evasive, combative, non-compliant and generally unwilling to work with us" after they spoke to him about the allegations, which surfaced in February.

It also said it had urged him to "present himself to the UK authorities for whatever consequences he could face, admitting if necessary, to any accusation that holds substance, and to apologise, asking for forgiveness and mercy."

In February the church announced that it had suspended the couple from leadership roles in the church after it became aware of the allegations in the UK. 

In its new statement it said: "John Smyth has chosen not to comply with a letter dated 4 February 2017 in which we strongly requested him to not contact church members until the matters of concern were resolved."

The elders added: "in our dealings with John we discovered he had not been compliant with previous specific requests from the leadership of Church-on-Main to not propagate certain views on specific debatable sexual matters."

Alleged victims, some of whom were pupils at public school Winchester College, said Mr Smyth beat them to punish them for "sins" such as masturbation or pride.

The allegations, originally outlined by Channel 4 in February, involve beatings of up to 800 lashes handed out to 22 young men over a four-year period in the late 1970s. 

Hampshire police launched an inquiry into the allegations and has been appealing for anyone with information to come forward. 

The Sunday Telegraph was unable to contact Mr Smyth.