Justin Welby: I forgive serial abuser John Smyth

Justin Welby: I forgive serial abuser John Smyth – help victims to “rebuild their lives”

Justin Welby told the BBC he forgives a serial abuser at the heart of a scandal that led to his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury.

In his first interview since quitting in November last year, Welby said his forgiveness of John Smyth was “irrelevant” and more important to help victims “rebuild their lives”. John Smyth arguably the most prolific abuser associated with the Church of England.

Smyth, who died in 2018, attacked more than 100 boys and young men in the UK and Africa over decades.

A damning 2024 review found Welby “could and should” have done more to bring Smyth to justice. The former archbishop said he feels a “deep sense of personal failure”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Welby said there had been “absolute failure” on Smyth and:

Admitted, “profoundly ashamed” of a speech he gave shortly after resigning where he had made light of his exit.

From the 1970s onwards, Smyth was a prominent figure in a Church-linked movemen. He used his position to inflict sustained beatings for his own sexual gratification on boys and young men. He would prey on them at Christian camps and schools.

Smyth, who later lived in Zimbabwe and South Africa, continued to abuse after he left UK. But he never faced justice in the UK or abroad before he died, aged 77.