Welby shouldn't be punished for the crimes of John Smyth

When the world was reeling from the appalling revelations about Jimmy Savile in 2012, almost as shocking as his abuse was that so many good people had known about it and said nothing.

- ANNE ATKINS

Years earlier, I had been told that John Smyth, the glamorous, upright Christian barrister I'd known from a distance since I was child, had committed acts of unimaginable brutality against teenage boys. Immediately, I contacted a clergyman who knew Smyth better than I, and who knew someone I feared might be a victim. He reassured me there was nothing to worry about: he would have known.

Should I have believed him? Absolutely not. Do I wish I’d done more? Absolutely I do.

Nevertheless, in 2012 I wrote an article in the national press about Smyth’s abuse. I was the first to speak up publicly by some years, although many others had known far more and for far longer. I was subjected to a storm of invective on Twitter, and was briefly sacked from Thought for the Day.