High-ranking members of the Church of England are choosing not to expose leaders over the John Smyth abuse scandal because of a “culture of silence and fear,” the Bishop of Newcastle has said.
Bishop of Newcastle Dr Helen-Ann Hartley said her colleagues are choosing to prioritise silence and their career prospects following the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
Mr Welby resigned last week following the independent Makin Review concluded that the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England, John Smyth, might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally alerted authorities in 2013.
“I think it’s a great disappointment to me that when I called for that publicly, I was indeed a lone voice,” Ms Hartley told Sky News.
“So I have no real explanation for that other than there is a culture, I think, of silence and fear amongst the bishops, which is really unhealthy.”
Other bishops may have stayed silent “because they see themselves as succeeding to be the new archbishop of Canterbury” and were “fearful of being reprimanded and rebuked”, Ms Hartley added.
She said she believed “anybody” who holds public office or a role in the church, who was named in the damning review as having failed in their response to abuse and the report of abuse, should also resign.
Across five decades in three different countries and involving as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa, John Smyth is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.
He died aged 77 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and was “never brought to justice for the abuse”, the Makin Review said.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr Welby said the Makin Review had “exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence” regarding Smyth’s abuse.
The archbishop added that he was informed of the abuse in 2013, but was told at the time that police had already been notified – which later proved not to be the case.
Journalist says ‘police were not interested’ in investigating John Smyth abuse allegations
Mr Welby’s son Tim has said his father was “right to resign” and his position “became untenable, simply because so many people were calling for his resignation”, The Mirror reports.
Tim Welby told The Mirror: “He’s definitely very embarrassed and appalled by what’s happened.
“I know he’s going to spend a lot of his time left in office having conversations with some of the people and trying to make sure that things are set up in the right way – so that kind of lapse cannot happen again.
“He’s trying to meet with people who were the victims of Smyth but others as well. He will be doing a lot of that. That’s going to be one of his primary focuses.”
He said: “The frustrating thing is I don’t think it ever occurred to him that it hadn’t been reported to the police.
“When, as Archbishop, you are told that something has happened, it has usually gone through so many hands. It seemed utterly inconceivable that someone wouldn’t have said to the police: ‘This has been going on’.
“He is really, really cross that it didn’t occur to him – to triple check that someone had actually done that. If you discover a crime then, of course, it gets reported. I wouldn’t say he was naive so much.
“Certainly, if it had happened later on, he would have known what was going on and would have been more explicit.”
He added: “It feels more like a political decision to resign where something’s gone wrong in the office. The person at the top is always responsible. His position became untenable, simply because so many people were calling for his resignation.”
Tim Welby said his father is “a good man and I love him a lot”.
By Henry Moore
