Archbishop of Canterbury issues personal apology to survivors of abuse at Christian camps

‘Victims are rightly concerned no one appears to have faced any sanction, when it is clear Christians were made aware of the abuse in the 1980s,’ he says

Justin Welby admitted the Church of England had not always looked well after people who had been harmed (AFP/Getty)

The archbishop of Canterbury has issued a full, personal apology to survivors of “horrendous” abuse by a disgraced Church of England clergyman.

Justin Welby said: “I am sorry that this was done in the name of Jesus Christ by a perverted version of spirituality and evangelicalism.  It is clear that the impact of this has been widespread.”

During the 1970s and 1980s, John Smyth, a barrister and head of a Christian holiday camp charity, groomed and violently beat teenage boys after forcing them to strip.

The archbishop, who was a dormitory officer at the camps, revealed he had recently met some of the victims, apologising both for the abuse and because the meeting had taken so long to arrange, acknowledging the delay had caused “much frustration and anger”.

“The Church has a duty to look after those who have been harmed. We have not always done that well,” he admitted in a statement.

“I continue to hear new details of the abuse, and my sorrow, shock and horror grows.”

The abuse was carried out at camps run by the Iwerne Trust for boys from public schools, before Smyth emigrated to Zimbabwe.

A report by the trust made public in 2016 revealed Smyth also took pupils to his home in Hampshire, where he repeatedly lashed them with a cane in his shed.

One victim said they were beaten so badly they had to wear nappies to catch the blood.

The archbishop said the church did not know about the abuse until 2013 because of a cover-up. He himself has been accused of failing to refer the allegations to social services and the police.

He accepted victims were angry that Smyth was not stopped at that time, when he himself was told about it, but said he and the church were unclear on the “utterly horrendous” scope and extent of it in the UK and overseas.

“These victims are rightly concerned that no one appears to have faced any sanction yet, when it is clear a number of Christians, clergy and lay were made aware of the abuse in the 1980s and many learned in subsequent years,” he said.

The church in 2019 commissioned an independent review of how it handled the allegations, which is expected to be completed by this summer at the earliest.

Some church members had even “facilitated” the suspect’s move to Africa, it was claimed, but the archbishop said he had already made clear the National Safeguarding Team will investigate everyone who knew and failed to reveal the abuse.

He also apologised to those victims he had not met.

In 2017, the archbishop issued a general apology on behalf of the Church of England, “before we understood the full horror and scope of the abuse”, he said. “It is clear that the impact of this has been widespread.”

Smyth died three years ago, aged 77, in South Africa, before police had had chance to question him. Abuse survivors had hoped he would be extradited to the UK.