Bitter memories of serial child abuser John Smyth have returned as several Zimbabweans have filed suit against St. Andrew the Great, Cambridge, for not doing more to stop him. The lawsuit, overseen by Leigh Day Solicitors (“Lawyers Against Injustice,” its website says), seeks another independent review, an apology that’s roughly 40 years overdue, and financial damages.
The plaintiffs include six Zimbabwean men who say they were abused by Smyth. The solicitors say the six men are joined by the mother of Guide Nyachuru, a 16-year-old who was found dead in a camp swimming pool in 1992. The case suggests that Smyth expanded his instruments of abuse beyond the canes he favored in England. “The abuse included forced nudity, beatings with table tennis and Jokari bats, indecent exposure, groping, and intrusive conversations about masturbation,” Madeleine Davis wrote in Church Times.
The case reveals new details into Smyth’s abuses when he moved to Zimbabwe in August 1984, after church leaders urged him to leave England. Smyth’s relocation to Zimbabwe followed a report by the Rev. Mark Ruston, vicar of St. Andrew’s. Rustin’s report found that two boys had endured 8,000 “strokes” across three years. Ruston died in 1990, and his report was not made public until 2017.
“The recipients of that report participated in an active cover-up to prevent that report and its findings—including that crimes had been committed—coming to light,” Keith Makin wrote in his independent review of Smyth’s abuses. “There is no excuse or good explanation that justifies that decision. Different—and we strongly suspect better, for subsequent victims—outcomes would have followed had appropriate reports to the police and other statutory authorities been made then.”
“I think the Zimbabwean victims have been treated unfairly,” Edith Nyachuru, Guide’s sister, told Cathy Newman of Channel 4. “Maybe they’re looking down on us as a Third World country.” She added her belief that Smyth is rotting in Hell.
So far, church authorities have responded to the legal action with standard language of regrets and promises to do better.
“We are truly sorry for the horrendous abuse carried out by John Smyth and the lifelong effects on survivors, both here and in Africa,” Church House (the Church of England’s national office) said through a statement. “The Church in South Africa has already carried out its own review. We have been in contact with the Church in Zimbabwe and offered to support and contribute financially to any review that it might choose to undertake, building on the review undertaken by David Coltart in 1993.”
Coltart’s review is available online.
A statement by St. Andrew the Great’s leaders suggested deeper remorse: “We are full of sorrow about the horrendous abuse carried out by John Smyth, which has had lifelong effects on survivors, both here and in Africa, and that he was not stopped sooner.
“While we are unable to comment on the specifics of this claim, we take the safety and well-being of our congregation, staff, and volunteers extremely seriously and follow Church of England’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Guidance designed to protect vulnerable people.”
The Rev. Mark Ashton, who succeeded Ruston at St. Andrew’s the Great, believed in 1989 that Smyth should not be working with young people, and that he should “come under the pastoral responsibility of a Christian leader who is fully aware of the past.”
Smyth’s work was “vulnerable to errors of judgment or other attacks by the devil,” Ashton said. He added to Smyth: “You have never been an easy person to advise against your will.”
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
