by Graham
“I have been asked to publish this piece. It was written by Graham, a victim of John Smyth QC on 19 May 2020, the day that the Makin Review into the abuse fell overdue. The Makin Review was promised in August 2018 when John Smyth died, but took a year to commission after his death. It was announced as starting on 19 August 2019, to take “no more than nine months”, so to be delivered by 19 May 2020. But, rather than nine months, the Review now enters Month 57. Ed
A frequent, if not constant theme, with the therapist I am seeing is: what will I need for closure ? What will I need to move on and put the Smyth abuse behind me, as best I can ?
The outstanding focus is the Review. I get drawn in to participate, comment, criticise, steer, stir and chivvy. I am like moth to a flame and the engagement with the Review is fundamentally unhealthy for me.
The Smyth victims were denied justice. Smyth should have been investigated in 2012 when I came forward. He should have been investigated with more urgency in 2017, when Channel 4 ( and not the Church, though they had known for five years) broke the story. I hesitate to criticise the Police, but it was a great disappointment to us that it was 18 months before they made the decision to seek extradition. He died before we got any justice through the criminal justice system. Our justice now is in a full, no holds barred, narrative and analysis of the abuse and the Church’s response.
And a Church investigation into the abuse has been blighted by delays. I was told there could be no investigation or Review while the Police investigation was live. Eighteen months were lost. Then Bishop Peter announced on 12 August 2018, the day Smyth died, that “It is important now that all those organisations linked with this case work together to look at a lessons learned review”. However, it took a year and a day, 13 August 2019 before the Review was launched, another year of waiting. For reasons that are still not clear, the start was then delayed from the announced date of 19 August 2019, to “in October”. And the review would take “no more than nine months”.
And now, another year’s wait ( I will put a fiver on the table that final publication has not happened by 30 April 2021). While I see all the arguments about doing it properly, making it comprehensive and thorough, it is not “frustrating” (the word used in the release), it is agonising. It pushes the day when we can move on, another year away.
And I am afraid I will not entertain the excuse of the Review being wider than anticipated. Simple due diligence before the Review, simple knowledge that there were 100+ victims, over 20 years, reading what was, by August 2019 in the public domain, would have shown the complexity of this story. I wrote in November last year about the lack of resources, the limited time ( then two days per week), the lack of photocopying and recording capacity, the absence still, after eight months of a signed protocol between reviewers, stupid things such as no easy way to access Counselling ( my therapist has not been paid, three months later, my expenses, submitted in November, just a few train fares, still not paid). The under- resourcing of this Review has been known about for months and months. That is no excuse.
So, what does the delay mean for me ? another year of waiting, agonising. Another year of not being able to move on. Next March will be NINE years since I reported the abuse.
Another year of getting angry, frustrated, manic, depressed. That is the effect of a year’s delay. You have condemned me to another year without closure.
And a number of senior C of E people – or people who were later to achieve elevated rank – knew of Smyth’s abuse as early as 1982. The Church’s track record is shameful, and its treatment of survivors appalling.
All credit to you and other Smyth survivors, Graham, for persisting in the quest for justice on behalf of other Smyth survivors – and those who did not survive – and for yourself.
First of all many thanks:
– to Graham for his May 2020 post (which I had not seen at the time since it was during a 2 year period when I completely gave up in disgust on all things Safeguarding re the C of E in general and Lambeth/AC/GS in particular)
– for the decision to republish the post in 2024,
– & for Janet’s perceptive comments above.
Before the Channel 4 programme key individuals who had already died included:
Mark Ruston, Mark Ashton, Peter Wells.
Since the C4 programme key individuals who have died include:
John Smyth, David Fletcher, Simon Doggart.
I do not have the detailed knowledge of the likes of Graham, Andrew Graystone & others so no doubt there are other names that could be added to both categories.
Actuarially speaking it is a fact that other key individuals will die within the foreseeable future.
Regrettably some of those senior clergy Janet refers to above will die, some have already retired & no doubt many more will retire in the near future.
I would like to add one 2024 prediction to those that Graham made in 2020:
A very high proportion of those senior (in the small s sense, as opposed to Senior meaning Bishops, Archdeacons & Deans) clergy criticised by Makin are about to develop the most appalling loss of memory between seeing Keith’s draft report last week for ‘maxwellisation’ & its eventual publication, whenever the Church gets round to that.
No doubt the precedent of the Post Office Inquiry will be fresh in their minds, in the very week that Paula Vennells is due to appear before it Wednesday through Friday.
Ironic of course that this is the very same Paula Vennells Lambeth was so desperate be given a 1/3 chance of becoming Bishop of London & has been so widely lauded by Justin.
So while I expect those many senior clerics to adopt the ‘Post Office’ defence of ‘I can’t remember guv’, the crucial weakness of the entire C of E process in this, & every other C of E ‘inquiry’ into historic abuse (including, just for starters: Jeremy Dowling; Peter Ball; Trevor Knight/Michael Gover/Timothy Bavin; John Smyth; Chichester Diocese, Ray Cotton; Colin Pritchard/Ifor Whittaker; Gordon Rideout; Robert Coles; Garth Moore; Peter Halliday; Trevor Devamanikkam; Iwerne/Titus Trust; HTB/Colman family/New Wine/SS/Mike Pilavachi; Chris Brain/NOS; Jonathan Fletcher, Iain Broomfield etc etc, there are many many others), has always that there is never any Jason Beer KC to test that ‘evidence’ in public. It was certainly not IICSA’s function to perform that role in that manner.
The likes of Sentamu, Croft, Webster, Bishop Alan Smith (who appears to have much to account for re both Pilavachi and Vennells) & at least 2 current Diocesans in the Southern province have not been put on the spot and forced to account for their actions (or lack of them) in the same way that Post Office Managers are currently having to ‘face the music’ in public under forensic cross-examination.
TBC
Continued:
Given that the Church’s own investigations are so utterly woeful (prompting Graham’s unsurprising, and long-warned, withdrawal) the only option left appears to be an ITV/Alan Bates drama.
Any nominations to play the part of Graham?
Can you point us to any good articles about ‘who knew’?
The book ‘Bleeding for Jesus’ lists quite a number, in the course of the narrative. Canon David MacInnes was one of those who knew as early as 1982, when a memo was sent round to a select group of people. You can find the memo by googling ‘the Ruston Report’. Mark Ruston was another.
It’s a complicated story. There are people who were likely to have known at the time because they were part of the Iwerne inner circle; others who became aware later when a victim confided in them. Many of these were prominent in evangelical church circles at the time, or have become prominent since.
I think the Ch 4 documentary is still available online too, though I can’t remember its title.
John Crace has just written the following about the infected blood scandal:
‘Remember Hillsborough? Remember Grenfell? Remember the Post Office Horizon scandal? Of course you do. So you probably don’t have much faith in organisations and government to tell the truth. Because on every occasion, what you get from politicians is a lot of hand-wringing. Bucketfuls of faux piety. Verging on the lachrymose. Not forgetting the sincerity. Always the sincerity.
“This. Must. Never. Be. Allowed. To. Happen. Again,” they say. Talking extra slowly and over-emphasising each word. Because this time they think the public might be watching them. Because this time they expect to be believed. “Read my lips. I’m an honest broker.” Except we all know they’re not. That every time they say this mustn’t happen again, there’s another thing coming just round the corner they had said must never happen again.
Weird, isn’t it? What are the chances? It’s almost as if the politicians are just mouthing platitudes. The sort of banalities that get wheeled out on the death of a minor public figure whom no one really knew. More an expression of helplessness than genuine intent.
Something must be done. But no one’s really bothered enough to do it. Let it drop and leave it to someone else. It’s all a bit difficult. Embarrassing even. And what’s missing is the sense of shame. The acknowledgment that government or public institutions might in some way be complicit. Might bear some responsibility. The political class lives to fight another day.’
If you replaced ‘politicians’ by Bishops/Archbishops’ Council, and ‘government or political institutions’ and ‘the political class’ by ‘the Church of England’, you would have the perfect description of the historic abuse within the Church and the utter failures to address it, for more than the last 40 years.
And yet General Synod doesn’t give a toss.
And John Crace went on to say:
‘To make sure his report survived beyond one day’s news cycle. That everyone didn’t just go, “Oh that’s terrible” in the afternoon and have moved on by the following morning. Recommendations? What recommendations? Just shove them aside to join the pile of all the other things that are far too difficult to action now.’
Every victim of historic Church-related abuse will recognise that this is exactly how the Church of England has handled every single one of the 100s of cases over the last 40+ years.
To take the single Smyth case alone:
2 deaths, more than 100 victims,
That’s 100 families, 100 sets of friends,
Lives ruined, hopes dashed,
Relationships past, present & future destroyed,
And all because it’s more important to ‘protect the reputation’ of the Church than be honest, open, truthful or kind:
‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’
For more than 40 years the leadership of the C of E has ruthlessly ensured that it has not once demonstrated a single one of these fruits, when it comes to its handling of the 100s of cases of historic abuse, and those thousands of survivors.
And General Synod has backed that behaviour every step of the way.
And continues to do so today.
More on the report by Sir Brian Langstaff where there are some interesting phrases which could be easily used about the CofE responses to safeguarding concerns, and perhaps especially about the Smythe situation and review.
One phrase that leapt out from the infected blood scandal report was ‘inherent defensiveness’ (sound familiar?) and linked to this a reluctance to listen to the stories of ‘ordinary people’, plus the fear of having to compensate victims.
The issue of was there a cover up? well not in the sense of a handful of people plotting in an orchestrated conspiracy, but in a way that was more subtle, more pervasive and more chilling in its implications in this way of hiding much of the truth – and so on.
Some members of General Synod have been striving to right these wrongs for several years, but they’re always stymied by the C of E establishment. Agendas are managed, questions ruled out of order, to prevent Synod having any real power. The revolt by Synod members against concerted attempts to prevent the sacked ISB members from having a voice illustrated this very well. It was heartening to see, but had no power to change events or policy.
The main Channel 4 News programmes were over 2 successive nights at the start of Feb 2017.
The attached, I believe, combines those 2 films?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-tZVXQM-8Q
There was a follow-up item involving the Bishop of Guildford, a Diocesan Bishop in the Southern Province (who now sits in the House of Lords) about 4 days later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXNS57yQWGI
Andrew Graystone published the following commentary in a thread on twitter today, with the link below and a transcript for the non-twitterati:
https://x.com/andrewgraystone/status/1792177685633913042?s=46&t=LGAknkcOdRekjYaDJe_N3A
‘It is two and a half years since my book Bleeding for Jesus came out, telling the appalling story of John Smyth QC, the most prolific abuser in the modern Church of England. I thought it might be interesting to hear some of the story of its production.
‘I hadn’t originally intended to write a book about Smyth and Iwerne. I couldn’t really afford to work unpaid for many months. One of his victims had planned to write it. But after a while it became apparent that it wasn’t right for them, so with their cooperation it fell to me.
‘I had masses of documentation and contacts. But it wasn’t easy to get people to speak. There are lots of reasons why victims might not want to break cover, especially if they are still prominent in the networks in which the abuse happened.
‘A victim funded me to travel to Zimbabwe and S Africa. I met some of those who Smyth had abused, and some who had tried (but failed) to stop him. I called at his house many times, but he refused to come out and speak to me…though at one stage he jumped in his car and raced off!
‘Many publishers were interested, but fearful of legal action from people named as collaborators or bystanders. Iwerne alumni are often wealthy and litigious. One publisher said “This story needs to be told. But there’s a 20% chance it would bankrupt us. We can’t take that risk.”
‘One brave publisher, @DLT_books took it on. A victim paid for the vital ‘legal read’ before publication. Without them it is possible that we still wouldn’t know the extent of Smyth’s abuse, and the cover-up by dozens of prominent church leaders, many of them still in post today.
‘When they heard that I was writing the book, Lambeth Palace staff were desperate to see it prior to publication. We said no at first, but eventually we struck a deal. We would allow them to read it, if Archbishop Welby agreed to consider writing a foreword.
‘I didn’t expect him to like it – he is heavily criticised for his failure to act to stop Smyth abusing. But I thought that he might commend the book as a story that needed to be told. The deal we made was also conditional on their not showing the manuscript to anyone else.
‘When Welby and his advisers read it, they refused to write a foreword. In fact they made veiled threats of legal action if we went ahead and published it. We went ahead and published it anyway. I’ve since discovered that they broke their promise not to show it to anyone else too.
Continued…
…Continued:
‘ If you read Bleeding for Jesus it quickly becomes apparent how many senior people in the church could have stopped Smyth but failed. Instead of holding their hands up, they all ran for cover, like rats in a cellar when the light comes on.
‘Some bishops said they would not speak to me, but would wait to speak to the official CofE review. That review was scheduled to take 180 days. As of today it is four years late and still nowhere close to publication. Key people including Smyth have conveniently retired or died.
‘Some of Smyth’s victims who have seen advanced copies of the CofE review say that it is wholly inadequate. It is full of holes. Key witnesses have apparently not been interviewed. Smyth’s time in Africa, where he abused at least 90 children, is not covered at all.
‘My book is dedicated to Guide Nyachuru, who died aged 14 whilst in Smyth’s care at a camp in Zimbabwe. The book is available at dartonlongmantodd.co.uk/titles/2328-97….
‘My current expection is that the CofE report will not be published until Archbishop Welby has announced his retirement.’
https://www.dltbooks.com/titles/2328-9781913657123-bleeding-for-jesus
https://amzn.eu/d/dMGRZyR
I thought it better to leave replying for a little while – to give myself chance to calm down and write moderately, after reading Andrew Graystone’s experiences In all honesty, I am sickened by the way he describes the church ‘brass’ using the fear of legal reprisals to suppress the truth. It reminds me more of Prohibition-era Chicago than anything else – ‘Godfathers’, rather than ‘Fathers in God’.
This comes a day after the poisoned blood inquiry report, and various other revelations which leave me wondering how anybody can ever trust ‘government’ again.
As a retired civil servant none of this should surprise me. It proves what most of us knew all along. The CofE and the civil service are run to the same code – thou must not tell the truth, or do anything which causes embarrassment to the person at the top of the tree.
What makes me particularly angry, as Andrew makes clear, is the blatant hypocracy of the evangelical church. Everything I’ve ever read from that stable promotes absolute moral standards of behaviour; rigid obedience of the ‘rules’ and resource to ‘the law’ (bible or state, according to subject) as the ultimate authority. But, when they come to protect themselves – man, there’s little to choose between them and the Mafia! And they dare to sneer at the Freemasons.
What happened to Jesus’ idea that we would be the light of the world? “And if the light within you is darkness….(?)” We’re “in the world – and just like it” it would seem from all this. How can we expect the world around us to want what we have to offer, if all they see is a carbon copy of everything else?
I know its theologically unfashionable – very non PC to talk about the wrath and judgement of God these days – but there are plenty of references to both in the New Testament letters on which we say we base our practices. Not least is the one which says that when God moves in judgement, he starts with his own house first.
We claim to believe in a God of justice, who rules the nations. Given the amount of corruption being exposed, is it too strong to ask if we’re seeing that God at work? The Holy Spirit is not just a comforter of the hurt – but also a disturber of the smug, self righteous and corrupt.
Come Holy Spirit – we need your winnowing fork and purging fire. Come, and may your will be done.
As survivors know only too well, it is impossible to bring abusers and those who allow abuse to continue to justice without being retraumatised. Many cannot face this as one would expect. However there is a massive gulf between the “necessary” retraumatisation when cases are dealt with swiftly and the constant agonising process lasting years when reviews are delayed repeatedly . In such cases I believe the Church is responsible for deliberately causing immense and unnecessary suffering. Added to this in my experience is the often woefully inadequate way processes and reviews go forward. It becomes a full time job for survivors to not only co-operate with the process but to frequently point out the inadequacies and also to have to cajole some action by blogging or writing to influential people pointing out even that the Church’s own rulings and regulations are not being kept to, let alone natural justice. We despair of justice. As if all this is not enough there is the real fear that once more the Church will wriggle out of its responsibilities or once again declare that black is white and white is black. This situation persists only because those who lead us, including General Synod, allow it to persist and prefer this system despite the suffering it causes already traumatised survivors. What words to describe such deliberate callousness by those calling themselves Christian? And many have noted that some of those who should be disciplined not only escape discipline but receive promotion. What is surprising is that although worn out and ground down, despite their mental health and physical health being damaged, survivors persevere to try to make Church safe. Shame on our leaders. They can prance about in purple and mitres, enjoy their pride in being on Synod and committees, but they fool nobody. Just as no decent person respects those criminalizing innocent subpostmasters knowing them to be innocent, no decent person respects those acting in a similar manner in the Church. Do they not feel the opprobrium directed at them?
BBC NI 29 Sept 2022: ‘Mount Merrion minister moved in 1976 after abuse allegations’. Was a 1970’s abuser in Ireland shifted, protected, elevated toCanon and buried at the cemetery of the national cathedral in Armagh? Was he possibly celebrated-until more recent times-as a founder or significant player in the Church of Ireland Historical Society? Anglican abuse issues may have been quite well hidden in Ireland. But stories are coming out. Do New Wine have an Irish wing called-‘New Wine Ireland’-which Irish Bishops should be looking at closely? The story relayed by the victim in the written piece above is one which needs to be shared widely. Why horrific delays?
The Irish Catholic experience most surely needs to inform Anglicanism’s present response to bullying-harassment-abuse. Chapter 5 of Letters to a Broken Church runs to just over 4 pages. But for me it really hits the mark, and it puts meat on skeletal outlines of what might (or might not) need to happen next. A lot of glib claptrap is bandied around in the secular and Church press. ‘Hold toxic leaders to account’ Church Times 10 MAY 2024 had a promising title but did it really say very much of any consequence? Voltaire said: ‘it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others’. Until Bishops face dismissal, for covering up ill-treatment of Church members, any fuller incentive for radical change will remain critically missing. Are everyday adults or ministry trainees still essentially unprotected? ‘Safeguarding’ perhaps means keeping records about children and vulnerable adults, plus reporting abusers to the police where evidence of serious abuse emerges. Fully independent safeguarding (in the fullest sense of the word) is what every adult and child involved with Anglicanism needs. Our denomination has £100M to £1Billion for slavery reparations, but no money to replace defective safeguarding. St Augustine described words as ‘precious cups of meaning’. Is-‘Safeguarding’-which fails to cover ministry trainees and adult lay members an institutional scam, which fixes up countless easy jobs and appeases the consciences of our Bishops far too cheaply and conveniently?
Fascinating personal reflection here [Fr. Brian D’Arcy: I can never grow out of abuse clutches 16th May] in The Impartial Reporter newspaper covering Enniskillen and County Fermanagh. Odd to see a historical abuse case get the front headline coverage in a regional paper. Maybe worth sharing around?
Thanks, James, can you give us a link?
https://pressreader.com/article/282063397071008
Hope this works!
Thanks, James. That’s very moving.
Odd how a tiny regional paper will feature this! I often wonder if mainstream media outfits run with the lurid details of abuse, while rarely reflecting on the longer term pain of victims.
James, Thank you for this link. It’s an incredibly moving account, his voice needs to be heard.
Odd how a tiny regional paper will feature this! I often wonder if mainstream media outfits run with the lurid details of abuse, while rarely reflecting on the longer term pain of victims.
Graham, we all respect and admire you for your continuing courage and persistance in bringing into the public domain the shameful role played by Church of England hierarchy in abuse cases. Your doing this for so many many weary years is an inspiration to us all and an example to be followed.
Graham be assured we shall continue as well. We are side by side with you and the rest of the survivors.
Have the people who treat you and others in this way no shame or conscience? Do they not realise the sham and hypocricisy in preaching about the Love of God and humility and yet ignoring your pleas for help? The sudden closing of the ISB last summer was deliberately cruel in view of having been warned of the consequences to Survivors. To stand by for years and carelessly see the destruction of people’s lives is monstrous by any standards but by high powered Christian leaders surely makes them unworthy of such positions. How can they call themselves followers of Christ? Christ did not treat or teach that people should be so harshly treated in order to preserve the reputations of the high and mighty. If the Gospels are read carefully these so called leaders will see He taught the opposite.
I should like to endorse most of what Simon Gell wrote above, May 20th at 8.57 so there is no point in repeating that. However, I am impatiently waiting for the Church of England to join the ranks of Hillsborough, Grenfell, the Post Office and now the Blood Scandal in being totally publicly exposed in their cover up, untruths, and wanton desruction of human lives.
How soon can we all make this happen? Not rhetorical but a genuine question. We have this blog as a forum. Thank you so much for that Stephen.
Thank you Graham for sending this piece originally published 2020. That in itself emphasises that nothing has changed. It is an inspiration to us all.