African abuse victims sue Church of England

Seven Zimbabweans have accused senior Anglican officials of concealing abuse by youth pastor John Smyth

Seven Zimbabwean victims of a deceased pedophile British youth pastor have launched a legal claim against the Church of England, stating that it concealed abuse and enabled continued sexual assaults in Africa.

John Smyth, a Canadian-born British former attorney and church worker, is accused of abusing dozens of children in Zimbabwe, where he lived from 1985 to 2001 before moving to South Africa. He died in 2018 while under investigation.

According to a press release published on Saturday, the claim links the church’s failure to act in the early 1980s – when Smyth abused boys in the UK – with his move to Zimbabwe, where six men say they were victimized. The mother of a 16-year-old boy who drowned at one of Smyth’s camps has also joined the case.

The claim letter says the abuse included “forced nudity, beatings with table tennis and jokari bats, indecent exposure, groping and intrusive conversations about masturbation.”  

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It further accuses Cambridge’s St. Andrew the Great church (formerly the Round Church) and the Reverend Mark Ruston, who led a 1982 internal inquiry, of hiding evidence and failing to report Smyth to police.

The claim cites the 2024 Makin Review, commissioned by the Church of England, which found that in 1982 the Church “actively covered up Smyth’s abuse and considered him a problem solved and exported to Africa.”  

One claimant, Rocky Leanders, said: “The memory of the shame and humiliation I suffered… has never left me… I feel increasingly angry that the Church of England exported this criminal to Zimbabwe.”  

Rebekah Read, solicitor at legal firm Leigh Day, said: “This case is about accountability. The Church of England had multiple opportunities to stop John Smyth… Instead, it chose to protect its reputation.”  

According to the Makin Review, Smyth used his position as a lay preacher working with youth to select boys and young men for his “clearly sexually motivated, sadistic regime” of vicious beatings. 

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In recent years, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has apologized for failing to safeguard people from Smyth and admitted it should have shared warnings about him.