One of John Smyth’s victims has called for more bishops to resign over the church’s cover-up of sadistic abuse, and has claimed the church is still failing to tackle safeguarding.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, the victim, who uses the pseudonym Graham, was made to strip naked in Smyth’s soundproof shed where he was beaten with a cane until he bled.
Graham, who campaigned for years to expose Smyth and tried to stop him abusing others, welcomed the resignation this week of Justin Welby as archbishop of Canterbury over the scandal but said others must follow.
The Guardian has seen numerous emails Graham sent to the diocese of Ely urging it to pass on warnings to South Africa, where Smyth had fled and is thought to have continued to abuse young men until his death in 2018.
Graham said: “I spent years hassling Ely saying: ‘Have you found Smyth yet?’ and all they did was shut the file.”
Last week’s Makin report noted that in 2013 the then bishop of Ely, Stephen Conway, wrote to a bishop in South Africa and to Lambeth Palace about Smyth.
The report said Conway, who is now the bishop of Lincoln, showed “complacency” in his handling of the issue, and that an internal review concluded “an opportunity was missed to halt Smyth and bring him to justice within the UK”.
Graham said: “Conway should resign. He was the single person in the best position to stop John Smyth. He was the one that wrote to Cape Town, and everyone assumed that he was dealing with it. He failed to follow it up and Smyth was not stopped.”
Earlier this week Conway said he had done all he could but he apologised for not “rigorously pursuing Lambeth”.
Graham said Welby’s personal chaplain at the time, Jo Bailey Wells, who is now the bishop for episcopal ministry in the Anglican Communion, should also “look very, very carefully at her position”.
The Makin report noted Bailey Wells was alerted by Conway about Smyth’s abuse and criticised her for regarding the referral as “not particularly remarkable”.
Graham said: “It is staggering to think that she doesn’t think people being beaten until they bled was remarkable.”
Bailey Wells said she did not know the details of Smyth’s abuse and regretted her failure to verify assertions she was given that Smyth was being investigated.
Graham called on the church to ban several retired clergy from officiating at religious services. These include the former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, whose permission to officiate (PTO) was removed in 2020 because of his knowledge of Smyth but reinstated in 2021.
Graham said: “Carey has already lost his PTO once over this, it should have gone again when the Makin report came out.”
Makin found that Carey was told about Smyth’s abuse in 1983 when he was sent an internal report from a year before that was covered up by the church. Carey maintains he did not see that report. Graham was one of the victims interviewed for the 1982 report.
Graham said Andrew Cornes, a retired clergyman who could be part of the selection process for the next archbishop of Canterbury, should also have his PTO removed over his knowledge of Smyth outlined in the report.
“If Church House’s safeguarding team was capable of taking this seriously then they’d be working their way through the list of those mentioned in the report and stripping them of permission to officiate,” he said. “There are about 30 people who have significant knowledge of Smyth who need to look at their consciences.”
He added: “More people have a role in this, it is not just Justin Welby – I want the next domino to fall. I’m not a vindictive person but I have been through the most horrendous abuse. Senior clergy have gone to ground and pretended this didn’t happen. It makes me so angry.”
Graham has been promised a meeting with Welby. He said: “I’m not sure what he could say that would placate me.”
After attending a video conference this week with the church’s head of safeguarding, Graham said he was concerned the church was still dragging its feet on holding to account those who knew about Smyth. “It was really frustrating because the implication was that they are only just getting round to consider how to approach it.”
He added: “I have absolutely no confidence that any kind of swift action will be taken. The only reason that Smyth’s abuse ever came into the public domain was media pressure, because the church is incapable of doing its own safeguarding.
“Why do victims have to do all the fucking work? If the church was competent they would be doing this themselves.”
