• Archived issues
• Contact us
• Please donate
• Press releases
• Supported projects
• Who we are

ANDREW Graystone, in his book Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the Cult of Iwerne Camps, has reacted to an independent review of the abuse carried out by Smyth — who used military-style Christian camps to recruit boys who were subsequently viciously abused — as “the Church of England’s very own Jimmy Savlle.”

In a statement issued this week on behalf of a number of victims and survivors of the late evangelical barrister, who had teamed up with fellow “morality crusader” Mary Whitehouse to win a blasphemous libel case against Gay News, Graystone wrote:

The Church continues to engage by utterly inappropriate means with victims & survivors in 2024. It has shown no interest in addressing this throughout the last 40 + years. We are particularly concerned that some Church leaders seek to characterise John Smyth
as a ‘lone wolf’. In fact he is part of a long and ongoing tradition of abusers …

It should be pointed out that Whitehouse adored the real Savile, a serial paedophile, and he won an award from Whitehouse’s National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association in 1977 for his “wholesome family entertainment”.

In a sort of “see, the Roman Catholic Church is not the only ones to harbour and protect abusers, The Tablet, a leading Catholic publication, seized upon the review, led by Keith Makin, an expert in safeguarding, who is quoted as saying:

His victims were subjected to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attack. The impact of that abuse is impossible to overstate and has permanently marked the lives of his victims. John Smyth’s own family are victims of his abuse.

Makin said:

The abuse at the hands of John Smyth was prolific and abhorrent. Words cannot adequately describe the horror of what transpired.

It also referred to Graystone’s statement.

In a statement posted on his website at Lambeth Palace, Archbishop Justin Welby said:

The pain experienced by the victims in this case is unimaginable. They have lived with the trauma inflicted by John Smyth’s horrendous abuse for more than 40 years, both here in the UK and in Southern Africa, particularly Zimbabwe.

I recognise the courage of those victims, including those related to John Smyth, who have come forward and relived their trauma through contributing to this review. I know their willingness to share their painful testimonies will come at great personal cost.

I am deeply sorry that this abuse happened. I am so sorry that in places where these young men, and boys, should have felt safe and where they should have experienced god’s love for them, they were subjected to physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse. I am sorry that concealment by many people who were fully aware of the abuse over many years meant that John Smyth was able to abuse overseas and died before he ever faced justice. The report rightly condemns that behaviour.

He says he had no idea or suspicion of this abuse before 2013.

Nevertheless the review is clear that I personally failed to ensure that after disclosure in 2013 the awful tragedy was energetically investigated. Since that time the way in which the Church of England engages with victims and survivors has changed beyond recognition. Checks and balances introduced seek to ensure that the same could not happen today.

Hat tip: Stephen Harvie and Keith Porteous Wood

Note: Images used in the the header are Channel 4 and YouTube screenshots.

If you support the Pink Triangle Trust’s mission to promote humanism, fight bigotry and fund LGBT groups, you can make a donation below. If you wish to report any typos or errors, please email freethinkered@aol.com.