Watch: Archbishop ‘lied’ about John Smyth child sex abuse scandal

The Archbishop of Canterbury has been accused of lying after he claimed to be unaware of the severity of child abuse by evangelical Christian John Smyth.

Smyth, a barrister who ran Christian youth camps, abused at least 115 children and young men across three countries in the five decades before his death in August 2018.

The Most Rev Justin Welby is under mounting pressure to resign after an independent report released last week concluded that his failure to act on concerns about Smyth meant the Church of England’s most prolific serial child abuser was never brought to justice.

When interviewed by Cathy Newman, the Archbishop claimed he “genuinely had no idea” that the abuse was so serious.

He told the news anchor: “I genuinely had no idea that there was anything as horrific as this going on and the kind of story you showed on the clip. I mean, if I’d known that, I would have been very active, but I had no suspicions at all.”

Channel 4 News

But last week’s report suggests this was not correct, as “the evidence contained in this review suggests enough was known to have raised concerns upon being informed in 2013”.

Andy Morse, one of Smyth’s victims, accused the Archbishop of lying.

Mr Morse said: “I don’t believe he was telling the truth. I’m not sure that he would have had knowledge of the detail, but I think he would have had knowledge of the summary.

“There was a cloud hanging over John Smyth and his activities from way back. No, I don’t believe he was telling the truth.”

The review, commissioned by the Church of England’s national safeguarding team and written by Keith Makin, the former director of social services, found that Smyth’s “abhorrent abuse” could have been exposed in 2013 – three years before it was made public – if the Archbishop had contacted the authorities.

Hampshire Constabulary began investigating Smyth in 2017 after Channel 4 News reported on the abuse. Smyth died a year later, with the report finding that he was “never brought to justice”.

Channel 4 disclosed how Smyth controlled and beat his victims, inflicting abuses such as 800 lashes for supposed misdemeanours.

In 2013, the Archbishop was formally informed of Smyth’s decades of abuse by the Bishop of Ely’s safeguarding adviser.

During an interview with the Makin Report authors, the Archbishop acknowledged that he had been warned to “stay away” from Smyth in 1981, decades before the abuse became public.

The report concluded: “On the balance of probabilities, it is the opinion of the Reviewers that it was unlikely that Justin Welby would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding John Smyth in the 1980s in the UK.

“He may not have known of the extreme seriousness of the abuse, but it is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.”

A petition calling for the Archbishop’s resignation, which was set up by three members of the Church of England’s General Synod, has now been backed by a number of high-profile priests.

The Archbishop himself has so far rejected calls for him to step down over his handling of the scandal.

In a statement to The Telegraph, a Lambeth Palace spokesman said that the Archbishop had “no awareness or suspicion of the allegations before he was told in 2013 – and therefore having reflected, he does not intend to resign”.

The spokesman said: “The Archbishop reiterates his horror at the scale of John Smyth’s egregious abuse, as reflected in his public apology. He has apologised profoundly both for his own failures and omissions, and for the wickedness, concealment, and abuse by the church more widely.

“As he has said, he had no awareness or suspicion of the allegations before he was told in 2013 and therefore having reflected, he does not intend to resign. He hopes the Makin review supports the ongoing work of building a safer church here and around the world.”