A survivor of child abuser John Smyth has called for Archbishop Justin Welby to resign, accusing him of prioritising the Church of England’s reputation above victims.
Andrew Morse, 63, was abused by Smyth as a teenager and twice tried to take his own life as a result.
A report found that Smyth’s crimes could have been exposed in 2013 if the Archbishop had ensured the police investigated concerns.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Morse said: ‘I think it feels like he prioritised his position and the reputation of his church above the plight of the victims and, because Smyth was still alive at that time, above other potential victims as well.’
Mr Morse added: ‘Yes, I do think he should resign.
‘He knew in 2013, he knew the set-up, the victim group and the place where we were groomed, all the way back to the 1980s.’
Smyth, who died aged 77 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire police, is said to have subjected as many as 130 victims to ‘appalling’ sexual violence.
Andrew Morse, 63, (pictured) was abused by John Smyth as a teenager and twice tried to take his own life as a result
The Archbishop of Canterbury (pictured) admitted to having ‘personally failed’ after an independent review found John Smyth’s ‘abhorrent’ abuse of more than 100 children and young men was covered up in the Church for years
John Smyth (pictured) died aged 77 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police
Mr Morse claimed the Archbishop’s failure to take action in 2013 was a ‘dereliction of duty’ and a betrayal of victims.
The CofE knew ‘at the highest level’ from July 2013 about the abuse the barrister and lay reader had carried out in the late 1970s and early 1980s and Mr Welby was singled out for failing to report Smyth’s abuse to police.
A petition arranged by members of the General Synod – the church’s parliament – has gathered thousands of signatures urging the cleric to stand down over his ‘failures’ to alert the authorities.
Mr Welby was today accused by one high-profile vicar of having ‘lost the confidence of the clergy’, while a bishop called on him to quit to avoid the Church ‘losing complete credibility’ on safeguarding.
The Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, told the BBC: ‘I think that it’s very hard for the church as the national, the established church, to continue to have a moral voice in any way, shape or form in our nation when we cannot get our own house in order with regard to something as critically important, something that would be asked of any institution – let alone the church, which is meant to have the gospel of Jesus Christ looking out for the most vulnerable in our midst.
‘We are in danger of losing complete credibility on that front.’
Of Mr Welby, she said: ‘I think, sadly, his position is untenable, so I think he should resign.’
She said while his resignation is ‘not going to solve the problem’, it would be ‘a very clear indication that a line has been drawn, and that we must move towards independence of safeguarding’.
Mr Welby, speaking to Channel Four when the report was published, said he had been giving resignation ‘a lot of thought for actually quite a long time’.
But he added: ‘I have given it (resigning) a lot of thought and have taken advice as recently as this morning from senior colleagues, and, no, I am not going to resign.’
Following the petition’s launch, Mr Welby said he ‘reiterates his horror at the scale of John Smyth’s egregious abuse, as reflected in his public apology’, repeated that he does not intend to resign and said he ‘hopes the Makin Review supports the ongoing work of building a safer church here and around the world’.
