1981-89

• Why do you state that Mark Ruston was told in 1981? All evidence points to 1982.
• 1979 you state you are uncertain whether you spoke at Iwerne. The speaker’s list from C Camp was found, clearly showing that you did.
• Your biography states that you “were involved in the camps as an undergraduate ….businessman and theological college student in the 1980s and early 1990s” (my italics) yet you now state you did not attend in the 1980s. Which is untrue?
• Iwerne have detailed card records of all attendees going back to the 1970s. Have you ever asked for the detail of when exactly you did attend? This could be clarified very easily. Please could you do so.
• The 1983 Iwerne prayer letter included your return of address when you returned to the UK. Did you receive the prayer letter throughout your time in France? When, after 1983, did you stop receiving it?
• Your testimony regarding the conversation with Peter Sertin is very different in tone to your previous recollections? The Makin Review quotes “Not a nice man…I wouldn’t have anything to do with him if I were you”. Can you remember anything further about that conversation, accepting that is was 40 years ago? Did you make any attempt to ask Peter Sertin why he would say this?
• Did you discuss Smyth with Steve Wookey in Paris, or at any time?
• Did you recall this conversation when you subsequently, probably, funded Smyth in Africa?
• Your testimony to Makin stated that you did make donations to Smyth. You told us that it “might have been £50 or so”. In today’s money that would be over £200, which is hardly “very small sums”. Which is true?
• Why did you tell Makin that you funded Smyth if now you are uncertain?
• You reference prayer letters. Were these prayer letters direct from John Smyth? How often did he send them? He must have informed recipients of his plans, including setting up his own boy’s camps? Is that correct?
• Or were these prayer letters received from either Zambesi Trust or via Iwerne?
• You suggested they might have been through your church as a general appeal for missionary funding. What church were you attending on your return to the UK, and were they also supporting John Smyth?
• You state that you might have sent Christmas cards to “people involved in Zambezi  (sic) Ministries”. Who else were you in touch with in that period who was involved with Zambesi Ministries? Were you aware of others in your circle funding Zambesi Ministries?
• Zambesi Ministries was not set up until 1986, four years after Smyth’s abuse was uncovered. Please confirm you were in touch with him at least until 1986
• Your letter (and the Makin Review) fails to mention the dinner you had with David Fletcher on return to the UK in 1983. Please provide as much detail as you can about the conversation regarding Smyth.
• David Porter told us that you were aware Smyth had left the UK, and that it was “under a cloud”. Please confirm.
• David Porter said twice “of course he [Justin] did know something”. Did you know he had told victims that ? What did he mean ?
• Did you attend Bash’s Memorial Service at All Souls in June 1982? Was John Smyth mentioned, in any context?
• How many times did you borrow Smyth’s boat? Why is this testimony not in the Makin Review? Borrowing a boat implies a degree of proximity and friendship with John Smyth? You were 22 in 1978, yet trusted by Smyth to the extent you could take out his boat?
• Do you recall Smyth’s name being mentioned, in any context in the remainder of the 1980s ?

1990-2000

• You state that there was no briefing or mention of John Smyth in those years. That is not that remarkable eight years after he was banished.
• By 1991 you were 35 years old, and by then, two years into your training. This would have made you a fairly “senior” member of the Officer’s room, even if not one of “the inner circle”.
• Please confirm that you never again attended Iwerne camps after 1991. Would the Iwerne records confirm this?

2013. This is the key period, not adequately addressed in the Makin Review. There is no detail as to what did or did not happen, what conversations took place, what records were kept. You refer later to resigning because of the church’s failings. The criticism of Makin that you had a “personal and moral responsibility” refers to 2013. The disclosure, whether being handled by Ely or not, should have led to greater involvement and action, by dint of your knowledge of Smyth, Iwerne, Titus, David Fletcher etc etc. This is the biggest failure of the Makin Review: to answer the key question: why did the 2013 disclosure fail, and why was it covered up for another four years? I therefore have detailed questions:

• How many conversations were there with Jo Wells? Was it really limited to the initial conversation, and one subsequent when she told you the police had been informed ?
• When she stated “you probably knew him” did you tell Jo about your historic contact with Smyth? Did you mention funding his mission?
• Was it standard practise for no written records to be kept of any such conversation, notwithstanding its seriousness?
• Was David Porter involved in these initial conversations?
• Did you discuss it ever with Nigel Stock?
• Did you discuss it ever with Paul Butler, at the time Lead Bishop for Safeguarding?
• Did you discuss it ever with Tim Thornton?
• In our meeting you stated that the Church Times had shown that the police were informed. Are you really alleging that the testimony of three anonymous policemen overrules the findings of a five-year review, when Keith Makin has interviewed all those involved?  Makin clearly states there was no formal referral.
• You state that you did not know “how serious and extensive the abuse was”. Are you claiming that you never saw the letter sent by Bishop Conway? Did Jo Wells never show you the attachment to the email?
• Did you, yourself, or your office, contact the police if you believed an investigation was underway?
• Did you discuss the case with Elizabeth Hall? ( never mentioned in your letter)
• You stated at LBC that you “kept in touch and found out what was going on” with Bishop Conway and spoke to him regularly. How many times did you speak to him directly about this case? You do not mention him once in your letter.
• What did you mean by “kept in touch” (LBC) ?
• Can you recall a single conversation, with a single person, after August 2013?
• You described, at LBC a “rigorous” investigation in 2013. What did you mean by that?
• Did Stephen Conway ever ask for your help in getting  a satisfactory response from Cape Town?
• I continued to write to Diocese of Ely until August 2015 asking whether Smyth had been found and stopped. Were you made aware of how little progress there had been?
• You met with Thabo Makgoba one-to-one in October 2013, just after you had received the disclosure. Did you raise with him either the abuse or the poor response from Cape Town?
• Did you ever discuss Smyth with Thabo between 2013-2017?
• You originally stated that you wrote to Thabo in 2013, but subsequently said the letter was on another subject. You were in direct contact with Thabo, so why not ask about Smyth?
• Did you ever raise Smyth with Garth Counsell between 2013-2017?
• You state that the Province in South Africa had not replied. That is untrue. When you were told they had not replied, what did you do?
• What advice was David Porter giving you during this period? Did he advise you to keep in touch with Stephen Conway? As your Chief of Staff was he keeping in touch and ensuring this was dealt with properly?
• Was there discussion of reaching out to victims and offering support in August 2013?

2013ff

• Did you make any attempt to call David Fletcher between 2013-17?
• Did you discuss Smyth with Jonathan Fletcher in that period?
• Did you talk to Alasdair Paine at any stage in that period?
• In 2017, you stated that you immediately called Charlie Arbuthnot (and others, see below). Did you speak to anyone “in that network” (in the widest sense) about Smyth in the period 2013-2017?
• Did you ask Elizabeth Hall to keep you abreast of developments? Did she?
• You stated outside LBC “nobody has a chance of covering up, all that is in place now”. Do you accept that the Smyth abuse did not become public in 2013, and a layperson would therefore describe it as a “cover up”?
• You write that it is a “deep grief that you did not get justice”. You do NOT apologise, here or later, for your “personal and moral failings” once you had received the disclosure in 2013. The disclosure should have raised enormous red flags because of your historic links to Smyth and Iwerne. If nothing else there were enormous reputational risks for you, given your historic links to Smyth. Did you not feel you should take on a personal responsibility, even if only to make sure you could not be criticised?
• Do you accept that you had a “moral and personal responsibility” to have done more in 2013?
• To victims it looks like John Smyth was, even inadvertently, protected. The same could be said of Titus and Iwerne. Were they put above the interests of victims?
• Do you accept that victims called for your resignation primarily for your moral and personal failings?
• It is now repeated often that you resigned over the church’s failings. Do you accept this diverts from your own personal failings?
• Can you understand that such distancing from your personal failings makes victims very angry?
• Did you not get that message loud and clear in our meeting?

2017

• Do you now accept that the “inaccurate assertions” after the Channel 4 documentary were always going to be deeply offensive to victims?
• Should we expect greater accuracy from an Archbishop of Canterbury?
• Why did you never reply to Andy Morse’s open letter?
• Andy tried killing himself on Christmas Day 2013, four months after you were informed. Have you thought what the position would now be if he had been successful?
• Have you written to Andy, personally, to apologise?
• You stated that, immediately after the Channel 4 programme, you called Charlie Arbuthnot and others. Can you list who you called ? Did you, at this stage, call Davd Fletcher?
• Did you call Keith Makin immediately that he started in 2019 and ask to give your account?
• How many times, over five years were you interviewed by Keith Makin?
• You do not mention David Porter once, yet from c2017-2019 he was our main contact with Lambeth. What was your brief to David?
• Are you aware he promised a meeting with yourself, your testimony, and a meeting with some “grandees”? ( I recall only Julian Henderson, though a QC and one other were mentioned)
• Did he discuss with you directly the many meetings I had with him?
• Your chaplain breached the confidentiality of two victims. Did she report that breach immediately to yourself? What did you do? Did you report her?
• I formally complained about yourself in 2020. I was told that there would be no investigation as you had previously been investigated, and cleared, in 2017. Please confirm that there was an investigation in 2017 into your own personal handling of the disclosure. Who interviewed you?
• I was told in 2020 that the 2017 investigation was confidential, that I could not see any minutes, notes or any final report. Please confirm this was a formal, professional process, under a Core Group.
• Are you aware that I was told that in 2020 there would merely be a “review of documents” to check the 2017 investigation had been thorough and properly conducted
• How many times did Anna Flowers interview you in 2020?
• Were you informed the reason why my 2020 complaint was dismissed ? I was told that, in 2017, you had been investigated and cleared of any wrongdoing?
• In the light of your subsequent resignation, were the 2017, and 2020 decisions fundamentally flawed?
• In the light of significant uncertainty around the status of the 2017 and 2020 investigations, please can you confirm how many times you have been formally interviewed by the National Safeguarding Team, separately to Keth Makin?
• Is there anything in this letter that you failed to tell Keith Makin? Is there anything you told Keith Makin that you have not included in your letter (subject to required confidentialities) ?
• It has taken you eight years to provide this account. Do you understand why your statement that “I stated internally and externally that I believed that we should be as transparent as possible, holding nothing back” is particularly triggering for victims ?
• Do you understand why your disclosure ( in the 2021 Zoom) that you funded Smyth in Africa led victims to ask “what else have you not told us?”)

Africa

• There have been repeated calls at General Synod for separate reviews into the Zimbabwe period (1984-2000) and the South Africa period (2000-2018). These have always been refused. Did you endorse that response?
• If not, why did you not intervene?
• I am informed there has been no settlement, no compensation, no redress (and no justice) for the family of Guide Nyachuru. Is that right?
• Thabo Makgoba has only recently announced an inquiry into why South Africa failed to respond adequately in 2013. Why did you not press him to start this process in 2017?
• How will you and the Church of England respond if the South African investigation finds victims of serious, criminal abuse in the period 2013-Feb 2017?

Scripture Union and Titus

• Please detail (subject to confidentialities)  all attempts you made to engage with Titus and SU.
• Did you call them both immediately in 2017?
• Are you aware that SU have not published their review in its entirety?
• What sanctions do you think should apply to Titus and SU for their “cover ups” from 2013-17 (let alone the previous 30 years) ?
• Paul Butler was a Bishop, but also an officer of SU. What pressure were you able  to bring to bear on SU through Butler, especially as he himself had been informed in 2015 ?
• Are you aware of the seven known alleged abusers associated with the Iwerne network?

Investigations

• It is clear that only now, eight years later, those who might be at fault over the 2013 failings are being investigated by this new “four stage” process and Panel. Why did the CofE not start proceedings in 2017?
• Th CofE acted very quickly over Lord Carey (Smyth); the Bishop of Lincoln; Bishop Wambunya; and Lord Sentamu. Why has no one been held to account for the failings over Smyth in 2013?
• If you assert that you resigned over the Church of England failings, but not your own, can you confirm that you might be investigated by this new Panel process over your own failings?
• Will you accept any sanction imposed by this process? They state they are basing their findings on the conclusions of Keith Makin. He stated that you failed in a “moral and personal” capacity, so must accept those findings if used against you?

Other questions

• Do you believe “victims have to come first” as you stated at LBC?
• Do you really regret not meeting victims until after the Makin Review?
• You stated that you meet victims regularly. Did you meet a single Smyth victim before 2024 (excluding those you would encounter as part of your Office, such as Andrew Watson)?
• Why had you made no public statement about Jonathan Fletcher (while I accept you cannot do so now, you could have done so prior to him being charged) ? Do you understand that for victims, the Iwerne world of Jonathan, Smyth, etc is all interlinked?
• You wrote to victims of Jonathan as soon as his abuse was exposed. Why not also to Smyth victims?
• You stated that you met with Anne Atkins, and very quickly. Why not victims?
• Partners and spouses of Smyth victims have had no support whatsoever. There are now four divorces. Do you believe the duty of care of the Church of England extends to others affected by the same abuse?
• It is only the media that has brought into light the abuse by Smyth, Jonathan Fletcher, and Mike Pilavachi. Should the Church of England proactively investigate and disclosure abuse when they learn about it ( depending of course on the exact disclosure and circumstances?)
• It is only pressure from victims that got us our meetings with you. Should you have been more proactive?

Graham 27 Jan 2025