According to the findings of an investigation, Cambridge barrister John Smyth QC, who was affiliated with the Church of England, abused over 100 children and young men severely. The abuse, which was judged “abhorrent,” was kept hidden for years inside church circles, according to the study, raising questions about institutional protection and accountability.
According to the BBC, a long-awaited independent inquiry has determined that John Smyth QC is the most chronic serial abuser linked with the Church of England.
Smyth QC, who died at the age of 77 in Cape Town in 2018, was accused of beating youths at his Winchester home whom he had met at a Christian summer camp in Dorset in the 1970s and 1980s.
On publication of the findings, the Archbishop of Canterbury apologised again to victims and said Smyth’s abuse had “manipulated Christian truth to justify his evil acts.” Smyth had also worked as a barrister, representing morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse, while he ran the camps for young evangelical Christians. Reports of his physical abuse of boys were revealed in an investigation by Channel 4 News in February 2017.
According to an independent study, the Church of England did nothing about a 1982 Iwerne Trust report that exposed the abuse of more than 100 boys from prestigious institutions by John Smyth QC.
According to reports, Smyth struck eight boys with a garden cane for a total of 14,000 hits, while two other boys were struck 8,000 times during a three-year period. The abuse was deemed “horrific,” but it wasn’t reported to the police until 2013.
Smyth was told to leave the country and move to Zimbabwe rather than face justice. Church officials are criticised in the study for knowing about the abuse but doing little to stop it, which allowed Smyth to carry on with his activities.
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Source: NDTV
