The sister of a boy who drowned at a Christian camp in Zimbabwe run by John Smyth said her brother might still be alive had the Church of England stopped the serial abuser.
Edith Nyachuru described her brother Guide, who was 16, as a “lovely boy” who was intelligent and a good swimmer.
He had reportedly gone swimming naked, as was Smyth’s tradition at the camps, before bed.
The teenager was found dead in the swimming pool at Zambesi Holiday Camp in December 1992 and Smyth, who had move to Zimbabwe in July 1984, officiated at his funeral.
I just think people of the church, if they see something not going in the right direction, if it needs the police they should go to the police
In an interview with the BBC Ms Nyachuru said: “The Church knew about the abuses that John Smyth was doing.
“They should have stopped him. Had they stopped him, I think my brother would still be alive.”
The Makin Review noted that while Smyth was charged in the mid-1990s with culpable homicide regarding Guide’s death and criminal injury in relation to other boys who were harmed, the prosecution was later discontinued when Smyth’s legal team, which it said was largely led by the barrister himself, argued the prosecutor had a conflict of interest.
In 2021, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby wrote a letter of apology to the Nyachuru family.
Ms Nyachuru told the BBC Mr Welby admitted in the letter that Smyth was responsible and the church had failed her family.
She wrote back describing the apology as “too little, too late”, the broadcaster reported.
She is now calling for other senior church leaders who failed to intervene to prevent Smyth’s abuse to resign, the BBC said.
She said: “I just think people of the church, if they see something not going in the right direction, if it needs the police they should go to the police.”
The Makin report said church officers in the UK were “very aware” Smyth was under investigation in Zimbabwe in the 1990s and they “could and should” have reported him to police for abuses in the UK.
It said: “People in the UK, including church officers, were very aware of these attempts at bringing John Smyth to justice in Zimbabwe.
“At any point in this period, any one of those people could and should have taken the initiative to report John Smyth to the police for his abuses in the UK.
“His UK abuses were well known to many people in Zimbabwe by 1995 and the number of people being aware steadily grew until he left Zimbabwe to move to Durban in South Africa in 2001.”
