Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby resigns over handling of church abuse scandal

The Archbishop of Canterbury,  Justin Welby, has resigned after a report found the Church of England covered up sexual abuse by a barrister.

Welby, the senior bishop of the Church of England and spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, had faced calls to resign after a report last week found he had taken insufficient action to stop a person it described as arguably the Church’s most prolific serial abuser.

In his resignation letter, Welby said he must take “personal and institutional responsibility” for lack of action on the “heinous abuses”.

“The last few days have renewed my long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England,” Welby said.

“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church. As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.”

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the Church’s second-ranking cleric, called Welby’s resignation “the right and honourable thing to do”.

Welby, 68, resigned five days after the independent Makin Report singled him out for criticism over his handling of abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s.

The report said John Smyth, a British lawyer, had subjected more than 100 boys and young men to “brutal and horrific” physical and sexual abuse over a 40-year period.

Smyth beat some victims with up 800 strokes of a cane and supplied nappies to absorb the bleeding, the report said. He would then drape himself over his victims, sometimes kissing them on the neck or back.

Smyth was chair of the Iwerne Trust, which funded the Christian camps in Dorset in England, and Welby worked at them as a dormitory officer before he was ordained.

Smyth moved to Africa in 1984 and continued to carry out the abuse until close to his death in 2018, the report said.

The Church of England knew at the highest level about the sexual abuse claims at the camps in 2013 and Welby became aware, at the latest, about the accusations in the same year, months after he became archbishop, according to the report.

If the claims had been reported to the police in 2013, there could have been a full investigation and Smyth might have faced charges before he died, the report said.

Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and so was “never brought to justice for the abuse”, the review said.