Welby resigns after report into child abuser associated with Church

The Archbishop of Canterbury has announced he will step down from his role following a damning report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church of England.

It emerged last week Justin Welby, 68, failed to act on reports of John Smyth’s “abhorrent” abuse of boys and young men and “several opportunities were missed” to report the abuse to police.

In a statement Mr Welby said: “Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.”

He added that “it is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility” for his role in the response to the abuse.

“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church,” he said.

“As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.”

He said over in the days since the report into Smyth’s abuse was published, he had felt a “profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England”.

“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church,” he added.

The archbishop had faced mounting pressure to resign after it emerged that he had failed to act on reports of Smyth’s abuse of more than 100 boys and young men.

The report by Keith Makin described Smyth’s “clearly sexually motivated, sadistic regime” of beatings during the 1970s and 1980s.

He singled out boys attending Christian camps and in sessions at leading public schools, including Winchester College, before taking them to his home and beating them with a garden cane in his shed.

Some of the victims had to wear adult nappies because of the bleeding they had suffered.

Smyth was able to travel to Zimbabwe and South Africa, where he is alleged to have continued his abuse.

He was a prominent barrister as well as a lay preacher – a member of the congregation who delivers sermons but is not ordained – and he died in 2018.