Lancaster man speaks out as one of Church of England abuse survivors

His tormentor, John Smyth, was under investigation by Hampshire Police and was "never brought to justice for the abuse", a review published last week said.

The review concluded that lay preacher Smyth, who died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018, might have faced justice had former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby formally alerted authorities in 2013.

Welby resigned his post as head of the Church of England this week after the review found he "could and should" have reported Smyth's abuse of boys and young men to police in 2013.

Richard, of Lancaster, was at Cambridge University when his abuse at the hands of Smyth started.

He said: "I was a Christian and went to Christian Union meetings.

"After that I had a chat with John Smyth who was an evangelical Christian. Your lifestyle is very important and you were trying to live the purist, holiest life you could.

"You had to be prepared to have a beating to show you are committed to God.

"I was groomed. At the end of my first year I had my first beating. Through the next year the beatings were on a three weekly basis and it increased in severity to the point of as many as 200 strokes.

"It was sadistic, physical abuse with undertones of a sexual nature, and emotional and mental abuse and controlling behaviour.

"It was a grooming process. The bible was used a lot to justify what was going on."

Richard, now 64, failed his exams at the end of his second year at Cambridge and had to leave university.

He said: "That’s when I moved to Manchester in 1981. The story broke in 1982 and that was the time they were aware.

"I started to rebuild my life. It took me a long time to realise that John Smyth was a bad man.

"I went to The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and had to repeat my second year but eventually got a mechanical engineering degree.

"The way my life has been affected, when you go to university it’s a time for teenagers and young adults to make their own destinies, and that was taken away from me in that second year at Cambridge.

"As for telling my parents there was a huge silence and a change in my behaviour and my parents were confused at what was going on.

"I didn’t tell them for a long time, and when I did I never told them the details."

Richard said Justin Welby knew Smyth because of his attendance at Iwerne Christian camps in the 1970s - though how well he knew him is a matter of conjecture.

“He became the Archbishop in 2013 and didn’t do enough about it," said Richard.

"There were 160 church people in the report who had known about the abuse before 2017.

"He (the archbishop) has admitted he knew about it but didn’t realise the beatings were so bad.

"In 1982 a report was done by a vicar and the church decided to cover it up and encourage John Smyth to go to Zimbabwe and he continued with his activities there.

"He was charged and acquitted with the manslaughter of a 16-year-old boy in a swimming pool, and other boys were definitely beaten by him in Zimbabwe."

In 2017, television director Tom Stone carried out an investigation into Smyth on behalf of Channel 4 and that was turned into an extensive interview programme called ‘An Ungodly Crime’.

Richard said: “I was interviewed for that and my name was used in the programme. I’m just an Ordinary Joe, I’m very happy to talk about it.

"A year after that there was an independent review called the Makin Review which took six years to produce.

"During those six years I wasn’t talking to anyone about it except some of the victims and occasionally to my wife. A week ago the review was leaked.

"When it happened in 1982 there was a cover up by the church leaders and a lot of the anger is about the church covering it up.”

Welby resigned after the Makin review and in a statement issued by Lambeth Palace, he said: "Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.

"The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.

"When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.

"It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.

"It is my duty to honour my constitutional and church responsibilities.

"So exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.

"I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church.

"As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.

"The last few days have renewed my long-felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England.

"For nearly 12 years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.

"In the meantime, I will follow through on my commitment to meet victims.

"I will delegate all my other current responsibilities for safeguarding until the necessary risk assessment process is complete."

Richard said: “I was pleased that the Archbishop resigned, it justified to me that when he said he was sorry he meant it but it is important to me to show solidarity with the other victims.

"Some of them are calling for more people to resign but I’m happy for the church to go through the process of sorting it out.”

Richard was a physics teacher in Manchester for 20 years, and then left to tutor maths and physics.

Six years ago he and his wife moved to Lancaster and is now semi-retired with three sons and a grandson.

Richard said: “I’m not an evangelical Christian any more. My two older children know about the abuse but the youngest doesn’t know.

"As for anyone else who is suffering abuse, if it’s in the church they now have a safeguarding team that can be contacted.

"Alternatively you can make an anonymous call to Childline.

"Nothing lasts forever and you will get over it – I have – and it will pass eventually.

"The Makin Review seems to have given some closure but it was a long time to wait.

"I will trust the church’s process a bit longer. "

Makin Review

The independent review led by Keith Makin into the Church of England’s handling of allegations of serious abuse by the late John Smyth was published this month.

The 253-page review revealed abuse carried out by John Smyth across five decades in three different countries and involving as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa.

Smyth, a lay reader who led Christian summer camps, is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.

Despite his “appalling” actions having been identified in the 1980s, the report concluded he was never fully exposed and was therefore able to continue his abuse.

The Church has said it is “deeply sorry for the horrific abuse” and added that “there is never a place for covering up abuse”.

While some 30 boys and young men are known to have been directly physically and psychologically abused in the UK – and around 85 boys and young men physically abused in African countries, including Zimbabwe, the total “likely runs much higher”, the report said.

It stated: “John Smyth is, arguably, the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.”

Mr Makin said: “Despite the efforts of some individuals to bring the abuse to the attention of authorities, the responses by the Church of England and others were wholly ineffective and amounted to a cover-up.”

The review, commissioned a year after Smyth’s death by the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, found that an argument had been made that the abuses were “examples of over-enthusiastic corporal punishment”.

But the report stated: “The conclusion of the review is that he committed criminal acts of gross abuse.”

“Further abuse could and should have been prevented. John Smyth’s victims were not sufficiently supported by the Church and their views on escalating his abuse to the police and other authorities were not sought.”

Smyth was able to move to Zimbabwe and South Africa, while “church officers knew of the abuse and failed to take the steps necessary to prevent further abuse occurring”.

The report stated that the Church of England knew “at the highest level” from July 2013 about the abuse Smyth had carried out in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It said: “John Smyth should have been properly and effectively reported to the police in the UK and to relevant authorities in South Africa.

“This represented a further missed opportunity to bring him to justice and may have resulted in an ongoing and avoidable safeguarding threat in the period between 2012 and his death in 2018.”

In a joint statement, the Church of England’s lead safeguarding bishop, Joanne Grenfell, and the national director of safeguarding, Alexander Kubeyinje, said they are “deeply sorry for the horrific abuse inflicted by the late John Smyth and its lifelong effects, already spanning more than 40 years”.

They added: “We know that no words can undo the damage done to people’s lives both by him and by the failure of individuals in the Church and other institutions to respond well.”

Among the review’s recommendations, are that the church establishes international reciprocal safeguarding procedures with other Anglican communion institutions and leaders where allegations are made against someone in a position of trust who relocates overseas; independent oversight of safeguarding measures; and ensuring safeguarding measures at the centre of every church officer’s professional responsibilities.