'Highly likely' John Smyth continued to abuse boys in South Africa - review

The evangelical Christian barrister John Smyth is believed to have abused as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK, Zimbabwe and potentially other African countries, but an independent review has said there remains little concrete information on his time in South Africa.

- Rachel Savage

The review into the Anglican church's handling of Smyth's abuses said he might have been brought to justice had Justin Welby—who yesterday announced he would step down as the archbishop of Canterbury—formally reported Smyth's actions to the police when he found out about them in 2013.

Instead, Smyth died in South Africa in 2018 while a UK police investigation—prompted by a Channel 4 documentary in 2017—was still going on.

He had moved to Zimbabwe with his wife, Anne, in 1984 after Church of England figures discovered his abuse of boys and young men at summer camps for Christians, which had included beating them and forcing them to strip naked, without reporting him to police.

By 1986, Smyth was running Christian holiday camps for boys in Zimbabwe.

He would beat boys with table tennis bats and force them to shower, swim and pray naked with him, according to the independent review by the former social services director Keith Makin.

In December 1992, 16-year-old Guide Nyachuru drowned in a swimming pool in what the review said were "suspicious circumstances". Smyth officiated at Guide's funeral, and later described the boy's death as an "unfortunate incident".