Starmer says Church abuse scandal victims were 'failed very, very badly' as calls grow for Archbishop to quit

12 November 2024, 12:29 | Updated: 12 November 2024, 13:45

Keir Starmer has said that the victims of a scandal linked to the Church of England have been treated "very, very badly", as calls grow for the Archbishop of Canterbury to quit.

A petition by some members of the General Synod - the church's parliament - has gathered more than 10,000 signatures urging Justin Welby to stand down over his "failures" to alert authorities about "abhorrent" abuse of children and young men.

Mr Welby has apologised after the independent Makin Review concluded that barrister John Smyth, who is thought to have been the most prolific abuser associated with the church, might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally alerted authorities in 2013.

Starmer told reporters that Welby's resignation was a matter for the Church but said that the victims had been let down.

He said: "Let me be clear: of what I know of the allegations, they are clearly horrific in relation to this particular case, both in their scale and their content.

"My thoughts, as they are in all of these issues, are with the victims here who have obviously been failed very, very badly."

Read more: Petition calling for Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to resign over abuse 'failures' passes 10,000 signatures

Read more: Bishop leads calls for Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to resign over 'failures' to stop abuse

Earlier, the Bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley, the highest-ranking Church official, urged the Most Rev Justin Welby to step down, following a "horrific, horrendous, and shocking" report into a barrister thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the institution.

Last week, revelations came to light that he did not adequately follow up on reports of "sadistic Smyth QC’s “abhorrent” abuse involving more than 100 boys and young men.

Smyth was thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the church.

A victim of Smyth described the failure to act as a “dereliction of duty” and a betrayal of victims.

Now, Bishop Hartley has described the Archbishop’s position “untenable” to the BBC.

She said the institution risked losing its "moral voice" if the situation persisted.

Bishop Hartley also shared a letter she received from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York a few days before the publication of the Makin report.

In the social media post, she accuses the pair of the use of "coercive language" and a "complete lack of awareness of how power dynamics operate".

She stated: “Following my call for the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury I need to share the contents of a letter I received from both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York a matter of days before the publication of the Makin Report.

“It is my considered view that the letter I received from both Archbishops sent to me in such close proximity to the publication of the Makin review (regardless of its intended publication date) signifies a wider and systemic dysfunction of how the hierarchy of The Church of England has dealt with matters of safeguarding and most particularly the impact of church-related abuse on victims and survivors.

"Moreover, the archbishops’ use of what I experienced as coercive language when I read their letter indicates a complete lack of awareness of how power dynamics operate in the life of the Church.

“The decision to make this letter and its response public has not been taken lightly. Quite simply it is the right thing to do.”

Ms 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".

'Dereliction of duty'

Andrew Morse, 63, was abused by Smyth as a teenager.

The report found the crimes perpetrated against him could have been exposed in 2013 if the archbishop had followed up to ensure the police investigated concerns.

Mr Morse described the failure to act in 2013 was a “dereliction of duty” and a betrayal of victims.

He has called on Welby to resign.

He told The Telegraph: “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.”

He 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.

“But I think he’s admitted himself he showed a complete lack of energy in his actions and I think if he knew in 2013 and he failed to stop Smyth then, it’s very poor that he waited until the publication of a report in 2024 to consider his own position.”

Another abuse survivor has echoed these calls for him to step down.

Mark Stibbe, who was abused by John Smyth QC in the 1980s, told BBC Newsnight on Monday that Justin Welby's position was "untenable".

The recent Makin review described the now deceased John Smyth as "sadistic" and the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England.

Mr Stibbe told TV presenter Victoria Derbyshire: "I honestly don't believe that Justin Welby can continue - I don't believe that his position is tenable.

"I would also apply that to the bishops that knew and did nothing, and the senior clergy of the Church of England that knew and did nothing.

"Their positions are also untenable."

A petition by some members of the General Synod - the church's parliament - has gathered more than 1,500 signatures urging Justin Welby to stand down over his "failures" to alert authorities about John Smyth QC's "abhorrent" abuse of children and young men.

The church leader has "lost the confidence of his clergy" and "his position is completely untenable", a vicar within the church said.

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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".

Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and so was "never bought to justice for the abuse", the review said.

Across five decades in three different countries and involving as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa, Smyth is said to have subjected his victims to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.

The Archbishop said he had "no idea or suspicion of this abuse" before 2013 but acknowledged the review had found that after its wider exposure that year he had "personally failed to ensure" it was "energetically investigated".

Mr Welby knew Smyth because of his attendance at Iwerne Christian camps in the 1970s, but the review said there was no evidence that he had "maintained any significant contact" with the barrister in later years.

It said while he knew him and "did have reason to have some concern about him", this was not the same as suspecting he had committed severe abuses, and concluded it was "not possible to establish" whether Mr Welby knew of the severity of the abuses in the UK before 2013.

The report said Smyth "could and should have been formally reported to the police in the UK, and to authorities in South Africa (church authorities and potentially the police) by church officers, including a diocesan bishop and Justin Welby in 2013''.

It said "had that been done, on the balance of probabilities" Smyth could have been brought to justice "at a much earlier point" than the Hampshire Police investigation in early 2017.

It added: "Opportunities to establish whether he continued to pose an abusive threat in South Africa were missed because of these inactions by senior church officers."

The petition states: "Given his role in allowing abuse to continue, we believe that his continuing as the Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer tenable.

"We must see change, for the sake of survivors, for the protection of the vulnerable, and for the good of the Church-and we share this determination across our traditions.

"With sadness we do not think there is any alternative to his immediate resignation if the process of change and healing is to start now."

Giles Fraser, vicar of St Anne's in Kew, west London, described it as a "terrible situation".

He told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: There's a petition going round now, which many people are signing and this is from all parts of the church.

"I'm afraid he's really lost the confidence of his clergy, he's lost the confidence of many of his bishops and his position is completely untenable."

Dr Joanne Grenfell, the Church of England's lead safeguarding bishop - speaking over the weekend, refused to say whether Mr Welby should resign.

She said she welcomed his apology "personally apologising for what he described as his failures after 2013 to really ensure energetically enough that this was followed through".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declined to say whether he thought the archbishop should quit.

He told reporters: "That's a matter really for the church rather than for me."