Channel 4 documentary reports on the John Smyth Church of England scandal

Channel 4 have broadcast a documentary over 2 nights “See No Evil” about John Smyth QC who was described as the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England by an independent review in late 2024. 

The programmes revealed the extent of the abuse and the cruelty as survivors shared their stories. Smyth told them that he was cleansing them of their sins. His own son recalled his own beatings and how his wife tended to the boys after their abuse. They described it as the “biggest scandal in the Church of England’s history”.   

Smyth ran summer camps at Iwerne in Dorset in the 1970’s and early 1980’s which were funded by the Iwerne Trust. He was the chairman of the Iwerne Trust between 1974 and 1981. 

In 1982 a report by The Iwerne Trust accepted that Smyth had during that time taken pupils from leading public schools to his family home where he had stripped them and lashed them with a garden cane until they were bleeding. Other survivors of his abuse were subjected to sexual, physical, psychological and spiritual assaults. 

The documentary reports that senior leaders in the Church of England were aware of the abuse as early as 1982. It is reported that Justin Welby worked at the camp as a dormitory officer during the late 1970’s but denied any knowledge of the abuse and was not interviewed for the programme. In 2024 he told the media that he had considered resigning over the scandal.   

Smyth was warned away by one of the public schools but the Trust, the Church of England and the school failed to report the abuse to the police. 

He was therefore able to move to Zimbabwe in 1984 where the programme confirmed that he was able to continue the abuse. He was charged with the manslaughter of a 16 year old boy who was found naked and dead in a pool but was not convicted. 

The abuse was not in fact reported to the police in the UK until 2013 when a survivor of the abuse came forward. The Iwerne Trust report was not made public until 2016. Smyth was therefore able to continue abusing a further significant number of boys. 

It is now thought that some 30 boys were abused in the UK by him and around 85 boys in Africa, although it has been suggested that this is a conservative figure.  

Smyth died in 2018 and was able to avoid being brought to justice in the UK. Since the Makin Review was published in late 2024, there has been no further action by the Church of England to provide the survivors of the abuse with any redress.   T

The survivors of the abuse who have bravely come forward to appear in the documentary and make these allegations against Smyth and others in the church deserve genuine accountability and for action to be taken against those that were aware of the abuse and failed to act. The Church of England should also fully co-operate and provide meaningful support for the survivors of the abuse and not just words.