Public School Defends Role in Alleged Cover up of Abuse at Christian Camps

By Sandra Laville and Harriet Sherwood
The Guardian
February 2, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/02/public-school-defends-role-in-alleged-cover-up-of-abuse-at-christian-camps

The Archbishop Of Canterbury issued an ‘unreserved and unequivocal’ apology on behalf of the Church of England. Photograph: Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images

One of Britain’s leading public schools has been forced to defend its role in an alleged cover up of serious physical abuse at Christian summer camps attended by its pupils in the 1970s and 1980s.

Winchester College knew in 1982 about allegations of sadomasochistic abuse at the hands of John Smyth, a British QC who ran a series of Christian summer camps known as “bash camps”.

The current archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, also attended the camps as a dormitory officer and knew Smyth but in a statement Lambeth Palace said “no one discussed allegations of abuse by John Smyth with him”.

The abuse emerged that year following a suicide attempt by one of the alleged victims. A secret report into the physical abuse was carried out by the Iwerne Trust, which ran the camps for public schoolboys, in 1982.

It described “horrific” beatings of teenage boys, sometimes until they bled. Winchester College, whose pupils were among the alleged victims, was informed of the allegations but neither the college nor the trust reported Smyth to the police.

Winchester College said no report was made to the police at the time, not least because parents of the victims felt their sons should be spared more trauma. The college had never sought to conceal “these dreadful events”, it said in a statement.

Instead, it said: “The then headmaster met John Smyth and required him to undertake never again to enter the college or contact its pupils.” The school had acted as best it could “in accordance with the standards of the time”. It added: “That John Smyth went on to abuse further, reveals the inadequacy of those standards.”

But the survivor who attempted suicide told Channel 4 News “everything could have been stopped” if the police had been informed.

Welby on Thursday issued an “unreserved and unequivocal” apology on behalf of the Church of England, admitting it had “failed terribly” to tackle institutional abuse.

The failure to report Smyth meant he escaped any prosecution and left the UK to set up other Christian camps attended by hundreds of teenage boys over 15 years in Zimbabwe.

Andrew Ellis, the chair of Zambesi Ministries that was set up by Smyth in 1986 following his departure from the UK, told the Guardian: “We are holding an emergency board meeting following the allegations which have come out publicly. We will be making a statement in the future.”

Ellis said he knew Smyth and was “very surprised” by the allegations being reported in the media.

Smyth, who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, did not respond to requests for a comment.

Hampshire police are now investigating the allegations that he was responsible for the sadomasochistic abuse of teenage boys in the 1970s and 1980s. The police appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

The inquiry has languished for three years with no action being taken, despite a victim coming forward in 2013 to the Church of England.

Hampshire police blamed the delay on the third party who had brought the abuse to their attention. The force said the person had failed to provide enough details of the abuse or provide details of victims for the inquiry to progress.

The force said it was first alerted in October 2014 after being informed that a victim had come forward with allegations against Smyth.

Police said detectives asked for details of any of the victims, but was told that they would not be provided. “The third party declined to provide these, stating that the victims would contact police,” the force said. “No further contact was received and the matter was filed pending any new information coming to light.”

It was only last month – nearly three years after the Church of England was told of the allegations and decades after the abuse took place – that the police began an active investigation when another victim came forward directly to the force.

“We are investigating allegations of non-recent physical abuse involving a senior figure at the Iwerne Trust,” Hampshire police said. “We have contacted those victims whose information has been provided to us and we would encourage anyone else with any information about these events to contact our dedicated investigation team via 101, quoting Op Cubic.”

But the Church of England insisted it had gone to police in Cambridgeshire in 2013 when someone came forward in the diocese of Ely where the alleged victim lived. The church said it referred the allegations to Cambridgeshire police in October 2013, and again in February 2014.

Cambridgeshire police said on Thursday they could find no record of the report from the diocese of Ely. A spokesman said any allegations would have been passed to Hampshire police to investigate.

Smyth, an evangelical Christian barrister who represented the morality crusader Mary Whitehouse in high-profile cases in the 1980s, was the chair of the Iwerne Trust for many years.

Alleged victims of Smyth that spoke to Channel 4 News have described years of brutal attacks, involving hundreds of lashes that at times drew blood. They were punished, they said, by Smyth to purge them of perceived sins such as masturbation. Some were abused by Smyth at his home in Winchester, Hampshire.

The Iwerne Trust carried out an internal and secret inquiry into the abuse in 1982. The report – quoted by Channel 4 News – stated that boys were given beatings of 100 strokes as punishment for masturbation and 400 for the sin of pride. The training beatings were carried out while the boys were “semi naked” and completely naked to increase humility.

The Iwerne Trust’s activities have since been taken over by the Titus Trust. A spokesman said it was made aware of an allegation by one victim in June 2014 and contacted police in September 2014.