Archbishop of Canterbury's "Delightful" Friend Accused of Killing Teenager in Zimbabwe
By Patrick Foster, Nicola Harley, Peta Thornycroft
A former friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury who left Britain amidst child abuse claims was later charged with killing a teenage boy in Zimbabwe. Hampshire Police yesterday launched an investigation into claims that John Smyth QC, described by the Most Rev Justin Welby as a “charming and delightful” man, forced young men to endure savage sado-masochistic beatings after grooming them at Christian holiday camps in the late Seventies. Channel 4 News will tonight report that Mr Smyth, who left Britain after the abuse claims emerged, went on to face charges of killing a 16-year-old boy who was found dead in a swimming pool at a Zimbabwean holiday camp.
The barrister was also accused of swimming naked with Zimbabwean teenagers, showering with them in the nude, and encouraging them to talk about masturbation. One alleged victim told the broadcaster that Mr Smyth administered savage beatings with wooden bats, in a chilling echo of the allegations made against him in Britain. Mr Smyth, 75, was the head of the Christian charity the Iwerne Trust in the late Seventies, when he ran holiday camps for boys from elite public schools that were also attended by the Archbishop. On Tuesday Archbishop Welby issued an “unreserved and unequivocal” apology after it emerged that the barrister and part-time judge had not been forwarded to police after the British abuse claims were reported to the Christian charity in 1982. Mr Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984, where he founded Zambesi Ministries, which recruited boys from that nation’s leading schools to take part in holidays similar to the Iwerne camps. In 1997 he was arrested over claims that he had killed Guide Nyachuru, a 16-year-old boy whose body was discovered at the bottom of the camp’s swimming pool in December 1992. The case of culpable homicide was subsequently dismissed. He also faced charges of injuring the dignity of five other boys who said they had been subjected to savage beatings.
Court documents from the time state: “The particular allegations are that [Mr Smyth] made the complainants walk naked to the swimming pool at night; that he took showers with them in the nude; that he talked to them about masturbation and told them to be proud of their ‘dicks’; as Jesus Christ had one; and that he assaulted them on their ‘rear bare buttocks’ with a table tennis bat.” The case against Mr Smyth collapsed in 1998, after he successfully persuaded Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court that prosecutors had overstated the claims and failed to follow proper procedures. A lawyer involved in the case told The Telegraph he had been “shocked” after the barrister privately admitted showering with the boys, and said he had warned Mr Smyth to stop. Channel 4 News has tracked down boys who attended the camps, who insist that the allegations are true. Rocky Leanders, one teenage camper, said Mr Smyth had encouraged boys to talk about masturbation and told them to “just feel free to embrace your body and love your body”. He told the broadcaster the barrister told the boys to swim naked, adding: “John took part in the activity. He certainly went in the pool. He was at various places throughout still naked, watching that we all went out and all came back in.” Later the boys claimed they were subjected to beatings with a table tennis bat and a jokari, another type of wooden racquet. Mr Leanders said he recalled one boy being beaten so hard that the table tennis bat broke. He said: “I remember I could barely sit down because my bum cheek was so sore.” Mr Nyachuru’s sister, Edith, said that had Church authorities reported Mr Smyth to the police in Britain in 1982, “my brother wouldn’t meet the fate he met”. Approached by Cathy Newman, the Channel 4 newsreader, Mr Smyth said Mr Nyachuru’s death was “a very unfortunate drowning incident”. He said he had not left Britain because of abuse claims, but because “God called us to Zimbabwe”.
The Archbishop yesterday pledged to co-operate fully with a police investigation into his former friend. In an interview yesterday, he repeated his “unreserved and unequivocal” apology to the alleged victims. He insisted he had "never heard anything at all” about the abuse claims, and had never encountered beatings in his religious life. It has emerged that two friends of the Archbishop have known of the abuse claims since they first came to light, although a spokesman said neither informed him of the allegations. A 1982 report into the claims, commissioned by the Iwerne Trust, was carried out by Mark Ruston, the vicar of the Round Church in Cambridge, with whom the Archbishop lodged during the late Seventies, in his final year at university.
The Archbishop has said his friendship with the Reverend Ruston was "extraordinary privilege" and he was "inspired" by him. A second friend of the Archbishop, the Reverend David Fletcher, was the trustee of the Iwerne Trust who led the investigation into the incidents. Rev Fletcher opted not to pass the claims to police. He said: “My top priority was that John Smyth should be stopped and second that the men he beat were cared for.” A spokesman for the Archbishop said he “has not seen the Rev David Fletcher more than once or twice casually since the late 1980s”.
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