John Smyth victim says abuse left him with ‘PTSD and mental health problems’

A victim of a Church of England-linked abuser has said the abuse left him with “PTSD and mental health problems”.

Warning: This story contains details readers may find distressing

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned today after an independent review concluded John Smyth QC might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally alerted authorities in 2013.

Smyth, who led Christian summer camps, is said to have abused as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa across five decades, subjecting them to traumatic physical, sexual and psychological attacks.

Explainer: Who was John Smyth – the barrister at the centre of the Church of England abuse cover-up?

Andy Morse, one of Smyth’s victims, told Sky News he met his abuser at a Christian meeting at Winchester College in 1975.

“Over a number of years he groomed me,” he said.

“He introduced sadistic beatings when I was an older teenager and through my university days up to a point when I made an attempt on my life to stop the abuse.”

He said the abuse was “physical,” adding: “It was caning, many many hits with a cane.

“But far more damaging to me was the mental anguish that came along with it and the counting down from one beating to another.”

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Struggles with ‘PTSD and mental health problems’

That anguish led Mr Morse to attempt to take his own life.

“For my 21st birthday, John Symth suggested I needed a special beating. That was when I decided it would be better to face death rather than another of his beatings,” he said.

He was found and saved by his friends and said: “I continued because it transpired that suicide attempt was one of the key factors in Smyth’s UK abuse coming to an end.”

Asked how the ordeal had affected him he said: “I have struggled with PTSD and mental health problems.

“Particularly in later life, there was a period when I felt that I was free of the abuse and free of John Smyth but the thoughts returned and the anxiety returned and showed itself in different ways in my life.

“I can honestly say there isn’t probably a day or two that goes by without me thinking about it and whether I could have done more to expose Smyth myself and therefore stop the abuse that continued in Africa.”

In 2018 Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town while under investigation by Hampshire Police.

The Makin Review, published last week, said he was “never brought to justice for the abuse”.

Resignation ‘a brave thing to do’

Speaking before Mr Welby resigned, Mr Morse said if he did not Smyth’s victims would “all remain stuck”.

He said Mr Welby “was at the Christian camps where we were groomed back in the 1970s and 80s” and “knew some of us personally”.

He added: “If he does resign I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for him to really push the focus on caring for victims of church abuse to the centre of his reign as archbishop of Canterbury. I think it would be a brave thing to do.”

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.