He has been the leader of the Church of England since 2013
The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned following a report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church of England.
In a statement on Tuesday, Justin Welby said: “Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign.”
His resignation comes after the archbishop was criticised for his handling of a report into John Smyth QC’s abuse of as many as 130 boys and young men across five decades.
The independent report, led by Keith Makin and published on Thursday, found that Welby did not follow up rigorously enough on reports of Smyth’s “abhorrent” abuse when he was informed of the allegations in 2013.
The Makin review concluded that Smyth, who died in 2018, may have been brought to justice had the Archbishop of Canterbury formally reported him to police a decade earlier.
Smyth had been under investigation by Hampshire Police at the time of his death, Sky News reports.
In his resignation statement, Welby said the Makin review had “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.
Just last week, Welby had insisted he would not resign over the report. However, in his statement on Tuesday, he said it was “very clear” he must take “personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.”
He continued: “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.”
According to the Makin review, Smyth’s abuse was covered up by the Church of England for decades.
The report found that although Smyth’s “appalling” actions were identified in the 1980s, he was never fully exposed, the BBC reports.
He was then encouraged to leave the country, and eventually moved to Zimbabwe.
The report said that from July 2013 the Church of England knew “at the highest level” about Smyth’s abuse in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It added: “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.”
In a statement after the report’s publication last week, Welby said he had not been aware of Smyth’s abuse before 2013, but admitted he “personally failed to ensure that after disclosure in 2013 the awful tragedy was energetically investigated”.
The Makin review described Smyth as “arguably, the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.”
He is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.
The barrister was a senior member of Christian charity the Iwerne Trust. He attacked boys at his Winchester home after meeting them at a Christian summer camp in Dorset during the 1970s and 1980s.
He also identified pupils from leading public schools and took them to his home, where he carried out lashings with a garden cane in his shed, the report found.
This included eight boys who received a total of 14,000 lashes, while two more received 8,000 strokes between them over three years.
Some 30 boys and young men are known to have been directly abused, both physically and psychologically, by Smyth in the UK, whilst around 85 more were physically abused in African countries, including Zimbabwe.
The report said the true number of Smyth’s victims “likely runs much higher.”
Smyth was only reported to police in 2013. At the time of his death, he was in the process of being extradited from Zimbabwe, so was “never brought to justice for the abuse”, the review said.
