Archbishop of Canterbury under pressure to quit over child abuse scandal

The Archbishop of Canterbury is facing calls to quit from victims as well as senior members of the Church of England. Photo / Getty Images

• The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby faces pressure to resign over his handling of a child abuse scandal.
• An independent report concluded Welby's failure to act on concerns about John Smyth allowed continued abuse.
• Victims and church officials, including the Bishop of Newcastle, have called Welby’s position ‘untenable’.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is facing growing pressure to resign over his handling of a child abuse scandal, with one victim accusing the Most Reverend Justin Welby of putting himself above victims.

It comes after an independent report released last week concluded that the archbishop’s failure to act on concerns about John Smyth meant the Church of England’s most prolific serial child abuser was never brought to justice.

Smyth, a barrister, is said to have subjected as many as 130 victims to “appalling” sexual violence. He died in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire police.

Speaking exclusively to the Telegraph on Monday, two of Smyth’s victims said the archbishop should resign.

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Newcastle described the archbishop’s position as “untenable” and Keir Starmer declined to offer his public support.

Asked if the Prime Minister believed that the archbishop should stand down, his spokesman said: “It’s a matter for the archbishop and the Church of England.”

The report found that Smyth’s crimes could have been exposed in 2013 if the archbishop had followed up to ensure the police investigated concerns.

Andrew Morse was violently beaten by Smyth as a teenager. He told the Telegraph the archbishop’s failure to act in 2013 was a “dereliction of duty” and a betrayal of victims.

“I think it feels like he prioritised his position and the reputation of his church above the plight of the victims and, because Smyth was still alive at that time, above other potential victims as well,” said Morse, 63.

He added: “I do think he should resign.

“He knew in 2013, he knew the set-up, the victim group and the place where we were groomed, all the way back to the 1980s.

“But I think he’s admitted himself he showed a complete lack of energy in his actions and I think if he knew in 2013 and he failed to stop Smyth then it’s very poor that he waited until the publication of a report in 2024 to consider his own position.”

Morse joins three members of the General Synod, a bishop and several other clergy members who have called on the archbishop to quit.

The Right Reverend Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle, said urgent action was needed to prevent the Church of England “losing complete credibility”.

She told the BBC: “It’s very hard to find the words to respond adequately to what the report tells us.

“I think rightly people are asking the question: ‘Can we really trust the Church of England to keep us safe?’ And I think the answer at the moment is ‘no’.”

However, the archbishop told Channel 4 News that while he had given the matter “a lot of thought” and taken advice from senior colleagues, he was “not going to resign”.

Reflecting on this decision, Morse said: “I know from my own experience how difficult it was on a personal level to expose Smyth’s abuse, but Justin was Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013, leader of the Church of England.

“His inactivity in 2013 was a dereliction of duty and a betrayal of Smyth’s victims, past, present and future.”

John Smyth routinely subjected teenage boys to sadomasochistic assaults during his time in charge of Christian holiday camps in the '70s and '80s. Photo / screenshot

Richard Gittins, another victim, met Smyth at a Christian Union event at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He suffered regular, severe beatings – which took place in Twyford, Winchester – that would leave him with bleeding wounds.

When asked if he thought the archbishop should step down, Gittins, now a 64-year-old retired teacher, said: “I think on balance he should resign.”

The archbishop said he had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse” before 2013 but acknowledged the review – written by Keith Makin, the former director of social services – 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 the archbishop knew him and “did have reason to have some concern about him”, this was not the same as suspecting he had committed severe abuse, and concluded it was “not possible to establish” whether the archbishop knew of the severity of the abuse in the UK before 2013.

However, 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″.

“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.

The report 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 but covered it up.

The crisis engulfing the archbishop has its roots in years of reporting by the Telegraph.

In February 2017, a Channel 4 documentary alleged that Smyth had routinely subjected teenage boys to sadomasochistic assaults during his time in charge of Christian holiday camps in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

In a series of subsequent reports, the Telegraph shed light on events surrounding the abuse and revealed the archbishop’s connection to the scandal.

A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told the Telegraph: “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.”