Barrister John Smythe abused more than 100 young boys and men and an investigation found Justin Welby knew about the abuse.
Oliver Leader De Saxe reports.
Oliver Leader De Saxe reports.
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00:00It was only this afternoon that Justin Welby announced his resignation. Pressure had been
00:06mounting on Welby to stand down since last week in response to a damning 253-page independent
00:14report into the cover-up of the Church of England's most prolific abuser, Jonathan
00:20Smythe.
00:21The report highlighted Welby could and should have formally reported the abuse back in 2013.
00:28More than 10,000 people signed a petition calling for his resignation, while the Bishop
00:33of Newcastle said he should step down as well, as did faith leaders here in the county.
00:40As a new person coming into that role, you have the opportunity at that point to stamp
00:46it out, to cut off that dreadful abuse. And whether someone is still in the country or
00:53whether he's somewhere else in the world should not matter. And the fact that nothing
00:59happened meant that for an additional five years, until the guy died in 2018, people
01:07carried on being abused.
01:09And those I spoke to on the streets of Canterbury say they were shocked, but not surprised.
01:14Did you know that the Archbishop of Canterbury has just resigned in the last half an hour
01:19or over?
01:20No, I didn't, but good. He did the right thing, he should have resigned. There's too much
01:26pressure. If you knew about this man in 2013, you're complicit if you don't, well, react.
01:37My suspicions are he just hoped it would go away at the time and it didn't. And he needs
01:42to, you know, take the punishment now and resign.
01:46People lost faith in him, trust in him, yes.
01:49I think whatever he said, however he acted from now on, that would always be in people's
01:57minds.
01:58In his resignation letter, Welby says he takes personal and institutional responsibility
02:04for the period between 2013 and 2024 and says he hopes this decision shows how seriously
02:12the Church of England understands the need for change.
02:17The final word from this Archbishop of Canterbury then, but what's next for safeguarding in
02:22the Church of England remains less conclusive. Oliver, leader of the Sats for KMTV in Canterbury.
02:30Oliver joins us live in Canterbury now, just outside the cathedral there. Oliver, have
02:37other members of the Church of England here in Kent reacted?
02:40Well, Abi, that's something we're trying to find out at the moment. We did reach out to
02:47the Bishop of Rochester in the neighbouring diocese, a very senior figure within the clergy
02:52here in Kent, and he was not making any comments to the media as of this morning.
02:57We did write to the Archbishop after the making report last week. We did also reach out to
03:02the Bishop of Dover as well, who's from the diocese of Canterbury, the same diocese as
03:08the Archbishop, but didn't get a response either.
03:12I think it is quite a severe case, this one. That's why it's called such a stir within
03:17the clergy, because it has impacted so many people. About 100 children were abused by
03:24Jonathan Smythe over several decades, and it is a lingering belief that if he had contacted
03:30the police back in 2013, he would have been brought to justice a lot sooner, before Smythe
03:37died in 2018 in South Africa. So that's kind of the reason it's caused such a stir, not
03:44just within the clergy, but within faith leaders across the UK.
03:48Oliver, what's next? What does this mean going forward?
03:52Well, there's a lot of speculation, Abi, not least because normally upon resigning or leaving
03:59their role, the Archbishop of Canterbury becomes a life peer within the House of Lords. That's
04:05very much now up in the air, and for the Church of England, it raises a lot of questions
04:10about what happens next for the Church, because whoever takes over will have to deal with
04:16a lot of mistrust around safeguarding, but also the fact that Justin Welby was a very
04:21outspoken figure on a number of issues. Austerity, Brexit, the environment, and they will have
04:26to steer the position of the Church going forward as well. So a lot resting on what
04:33happens next going forward. It's going to be something we're going to be covering very
04:36closely here on KMTV in the coming weeks and months.
04:40Oliver, thank you very much for those details today.