UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
This is an open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from an anonymous abuse victim who told his story in the Daily Telegraph. It is endorsed by seven other victims.
Dear Archbishop,
I am sure that we will meet one day. You have expressed your deep regret about how the Church has treated myself and my fellow victims since John Smyth’s abuse was uncovered. And besides, we have a lot in common. We are pretty much the same age. You went to Eton, I went to Winchester College. We have shared a university education.
We were both at the Iwerne Trust Christian camps at the same time, although I was there as a boy, you were there as an Iwerne Officer. Crucially, however, we both personally knew John Smyth, the subject of Channel 4’s news reports last Thursday & Friday. He was my abuser. The man who beat me in the horrific detail that was exposed in the television reports (and that I have written about in my account for Monday’s Daily Telegraph, the newspaper that, in my opinion, bravely ran this story before all others).
You have described John Smyth as ‘charming’ and ‘delightful’. Some people have found these words a strange description for someone who is alleged to have performed such monstrous acts, but I completely agree with you. I first met John Smyth when I was 14 years old. He was charming and delightful. That was why I latched on to him.
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