Sadiq Khan says Justin Welby's 'silence' in church abuse scandal 'not acceptable'

Sadiq Khan has described Justin Welby's involvement in the John Smyth abuse cover-up as “not acceptable.” The Archbishop of Canterbury announced that he had sought permission from the King to resign, less than a week after an independent review concluded the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the church might have been brought to justice had the outgoing archbishop formally reported him to police a decade ago.

Speaking during a phone-in on James O’Brien’s LBC Radio show, the Mayor of London said he welcomed Mr Welby’s resignation.

“It’s really important that we start with the victims because they’re often forgotten in these discussions because obviously it’s the archbishop and he’s famous, and he’s the archbishop,” he said.

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“But what’s clear is many people suffered at the hands of this man, the archbishop knew about it, and you know far better than I do, the history of secrecy, the history of people ‘getting away with it’.

“When you know somebody’s acting in a way that’s improper, you have to act on that, and I think silence, acquiescence is not acceptable.”

Over five decades between the 1970s until his death, Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.

A lay reader who led Christian summer camps, Smyth died aged 77 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police and was “never brought to justice for the abuse”, the review said.

Mr Welby said he had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse” before 2013.

The report said Smyth “could and should have been formally reported to the police in the UK, and to authorities in South Africa (church authorities and potentially the police) by church officers, including a diocesan bishop and Justin Welby in 2013′′.