&sq=&lang=&file=File:Ambox_current_red.svg){kind=small} | This article is about a person involved in a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. (November 2024) |
John Smyth | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:John_Smyth_(barrister)_in_2017.png) Smyth in 2017 | |
| Born | John Jackson Smyth 27 June 1941 |
| Died | 11 August 2018 (aged 77) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Barrister |
| Known for | Abusive behaviour |
| Spouse |
Josephine Anne Leggott
(m. 1968) |
| Children | 4 |
John Jackson Smyth QC (/smaɪð/; 27 June 1941 – 11 August 2018) was a Canadian-born British barrister and serial child abuser who was actively involved in Christian ministry for children within the Anglican Church, as chairman of the Iwerne Trust which raised funds for, and in practice ran, the influential conservative evangelical Iwerne camps. He acted as lawyer for Mary Whitehouse, a Christian morality campaigner.
In 1982, the Iwerne Trust was informed that Smyth had performed sadistic beatings on schoolboys and young men associated with the Iwerne Camps and with a Christian group at Winchester College. Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984, where he continued to run children's camps. The police were not informed of the 1982 report until 2013, and it became public in 2017. Anglican Bishop Andrew Watson disclosed that, as a young man, he was a victim. Smyth died during the investigation and was never charged. An independent review published in 2024 concluded that he subjected more than 100 boys and young men to "traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks"[1] over a period of four decades. On November 12, 2024, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby announced he would resign due to the part he played in the church's failure to acknowledge Smyth's child abuse.
- ^ Makin, Keith (18 October 2024). "Independent Learning Lessons Review – John Smyth QC" (PDF). Church of England. p. 1. Retrieved 13 November 2024.