John Smyth abuse: South Africa's Anglican Church apologises over exposing children to risk

John Smyth moved to South Africa from Zimbabwe where he abused young people at Christian camps he ran.

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Senior barrister John Smyth, who died in South Africa in 2018 at the age of 77, abused over 100 children and young men in the UK and Zimbabwe in the 1970s and 1980s. He met many of them at Christian camps that he organised.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, resigned last year following the publication of an independent review into the matter.

It found that Mr Welby and other church leaders "could and should" have formally reported Smyth in 2013 to police in the UK and authorities in South Africa.

Smyth moved to Zimbabwe with his wife and four children from Winchester in England in 1984, two years after a report, which was not made public at the time, detailed the physical abuse he meted out.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0m1ge1xnm2o

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