Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men to “appalling” sexual violence, but died in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Constabulary..reports Asian Lite News
The Archbishop of Canterbury has rejected calls to resign after a report found the Church of England covered up the “abhorrent” abuse of more than 100 boys and young men for years. John Smyth’s abuse could have been exposed in 2013 if Justin Welby had followed up to ensure the police investigated concerns.
Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men to “appalling” sexual violence, but died in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Constabulary. Three members of the General Synod have launched a petition that calls on the Archbishop to resign following the report.
The Rev Richard Coles, the radio presenter, is among those calling for the Archbishop’s resignation. In a post on social media, he said: “Anyone in authority who knew about an abuser and did not act properly so that abuse continued should resign. Then [we need] a reset that begins with making safeguarding in the CofE independent of the CofE.”
The Rev Giles Fraser, the vicar and columnist, said it was “unlikely” he could remain in post. Rev Fraser posted: “I think it seems increasingly unlikely that the Archbishop of Canterbury can survive in post, given the growing chorus of calls for his resignation from amongst his own clergy.”
A Lambeth Palace spokesman said that the Archbishop “reiterates his horror” over Smyth’s abuse and has “apologised profoundly both for his own failures and omissions and for the wickedness, concealment and abuse by the church more widely”. She added: “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.”
It comes after the Archbishop said on Thursday, the day of the report’s publication, that he had thought about resigning that morning. He told Channel 4 News: “I have given it (resigning) a lot of thought and have taken advice as recently as this morning from senior colleagues, and, no, I am not going to resign.”
Asked if he considered resigning on Thursday morning, the Archbishop said “yes”. The Archbishop said he had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse” before 2013 but acknowledged the review had found that after its wider exposure that year he had “personally failed to ensure” it was investigated.
He knew Smyth because of his attendance at the Iwerne Christian camps in the 1970s, but the review said there was no evidence that he had “maintained any significant contact” with the barrister in later years.
It said while he knew him and “did have reason to have some concern about him” this was not the same as suspecting he had committed severe abuses, and concluded it was “not possible to establish” whether the Archbishop knew of the severity of the abuses in the UK before 2013.
But 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”. It said, “had that been done, on the balance of probabilities” Smyth could have been brought to justice “at a much earlier point” than the Hampshire Constabulary investigation in early 2017.
It added: “Opportunities to establish whether he continued to pose an abusive threat in South Africa were missed because of these inactions by senior church officers.” The report also stated: “In effect, three and a half years were lost, a time within which John Smyth could have been brought to justice and any abuse he was committing in South Africa discovered and stopped.”
Its authors concluded that, in their opinion: “Justin Welby held a personal and moral responsibility to pursue this further, whatever the policies at play at the time required.” Others have warned against treating the Archbishop as a “scapegoat”, noting that some church officials knew far more than he did about Smyth’s abuse for decades but covered it up.