TEN members of the clergy, including two bishops, could be subject to disciplinary proceedings in connection with the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, if the President of the Tribunals permits the National Safeguarding Team (NST) to bring complaints under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) out of time.
They include a former Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, and Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury.
The announcement, made by the NST on Tuesday, concludes a four-stage process considering the actions of clergy named in the Makin review of Smyth’s abuse (News, 5 December 2024). The review culminated in recommendations by a panel; and these were reviewed by an independent barrister.
The Church House statement said that the panel had “considered the safeguarding policies and guidance which were in force at the relevant time, the facts of the particular case, the relevant legal considerations and whether there is sufficient evidence to justify proceedings”. The barrister had concurred with all of the panel’s decisions.
Of the ten potential respondents, seven are retired. In total, the Makin review named dozens of clergy said to have known of Smyth’s abuse. The ten listed represent those whose actions have been deemed to meet the threshold for instituting disciplinary proceedings. Complaints could, however, still be brought by other individuals. There are two priests named in the report whose actions have not yet been reviewed, as they are subject to other live processes.
In the wake of the Makin review, the dioceses in which the ten reside conducted risk assessments about their safety to minister, coming to different conclusions. Permission to officiate (PTO) was withdrawn from some; some were asked to step back from ministry; and some have denied knowledge of Smyth’s abuse or its severity.
Lord Carey handed in his PTO in the diocese of Oxford in December, citing his advancing years and time in ministry (News, 20 December 2024). His PTO had previously been withdrawn during the compilation of the Makin review (News, 19 June 2020), which concluded that he had been given a report on Smyth’s abuse when he was Principal of Trinity College, Bristol, in 1983. He has denied this.
Bishop Butler, who retired to the diocese of Southwell and Nottingham last year, was asked to “step back” from ministry in November (News, 28 November 2024). From 2011 to 2017, he was president of the Scripture Union (SU).
During this time, the Revd Tim Hastie-Smith, currently Team Vicar in the South Cotswolds Team Ministry in the diocese of Gloucester, was SU’s national director. The SU did not run the camps organised by the Iwerne Trust (chaired for a time by Smyth, who also served as a leader on its holiday camps for young people), but employed three of the staff at Iwerne and supported its operations. Smyth was also an SU trustee.
Mr Hastie-Smith was informed about “non-recent abuse disclosures” in 2014 and has said that he must have been “grotesquely insensitive” or “extraordinarily incurious” not to have known about the abuse earlier. He told Bishop Butler in 2015. Bishop Butler told the Makin review that he was not provided with any detailed information about the abuse, and that he played an “advisory and not managerial” part.
The Revd Sue Colman was asked to step back from her ministry as an NSM at St Leonard’s, Oakley, in the diocese of Winchester, in November (News, 15 November 2024). From 1989, her husband, Sir Jamie Colman, chaired the trustees of Zambezi Ministries, the charity overseeing Smyth’s activities in Zimbabwe, after the other trustees resigned when warned about Smyth’s abuse in the UK. The Makin review concluded: “It is likely, on the balance of probabilities, that both Jamie and Sue Colman had significant knowledge of the abuses in the UK and Africa, given their positions as Trustees.”
The Revd Nick Stott’s PTO was withdrawn by the diocese of Gloucester in November. In 2001, he assumed leadership of the Zambezi camps from Smyth. He told the review that “it was not his place to go investigating rumours and, in hindsight, he wishes he had done so.”
In November, the diocese of Gloucester confirmed that PTO had been withdrawn from the Revd Hugh Palmer, a former Rector of All Souls’, Langham Place, in London (News, 22 November 2024). Mr Palmer told the Makin review that he did not know of the abuse until 2017, despite having visited in hospital a Smyth victim who attempted to take his own life in 1982.
The Ven. Roger Combes, a former Archdeacon of Horsham, who retired in Chichester diocese in 2014, is listed in the Makin report as one of the recipients of the Ruston report, a document compiled in 1982 and detailing the abuse perpetrated against 22 young men. He told the Makin review that he had “held this unopened on his knee, realised the seriousness and the nature of the report and chose not to read it”, believing that “the victims would be embarrassed if he knew the details.”
Canon Andrew Cornes, who retired in the diocese of Chichester in 2015, learned of the abuse in 1982 when a victim confided in him. There is no evidence that he took action to respond to this. He told the Makin review that he thought that the matter was being dealt with. He is a member of the Crown Nominations Commission and the General Synod. As of November, he retained his PTO.
The Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, said on Tuesday: “As no new information has come to light, we continue to follow the advice that we received from the Diocesan Safeguarding Officer at the end of last year . . . that there is currently no evidence that neither Roger Combes nor Andrew Cornes presents a safeguarding risk.
“They have both voluntarily stepped back from ministry while the National Safeguarding Teams’ review continues. This means not exercising their permission to officiate (PTO), and not functioning as an active member of the General Synod or the Crown Nomination Commission (CNC).”
The Makin review said that concerns about Smyth were raised with the Revd Paul Perkin, then Vicar of St Mark’s, Battersea Rise, in 1994 by a couple aware of allegations of abuse. Their concerns went unheeded — a conclusion disputed by Mr Perkin, who told the review that he had no knowledge of the severity of the abuse until 2017. He is licensed as house-for-duty Team Vicar of St Andrew’s, Limpsfield Chart, in the diocese of Southwark.
A spokesperson for the diocese of Southwark said: “The advice that we have received from the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team is that Paul Perkin does not present a current safeguarding risk. A further risk assessment has also reached the same conclusion. Mr Perkin therefore remains in post for the time being and is due to retire at the end of March 2025.”
PTO was withdrawn from Prebendary John Woolmer, who retired in 2007, by the diocese of Leicester in 2022, during the compilation of the Makin review. As assistant chaplain of Winchester College from 1972 to 1975, he led the Christian Forum during the time when Smyth addressed it and met many of his victims. The Makin review reports that he became concerned about Smyth’s influence.
As a curate of St Aldate’s, Oxford, since 1975, he was approached in either late 1981 or early 1982 by a student at Oxford who was worried about something “very serious”, which involved abuse. The Makin review says: “John Woolmer did not pursue this and has reported to Reviewers that he has regretted that since. . . He has stressed to reviewers that he was told of this under a strict understanding that he must not pass this on.”
IT IS now years — in most instances, decades — since the ten are said to have first learned of Smyth’s abuse. The National Safeguarding Director, Alexander Kubeyinje, will bring an application to the President of Tribunals for the complaints to be brought outside the one-year limit. Each application will be considered separately. Decisions are expected within the next eight to ten weeks.
The CDM states that the President of Tribunals may give permission “if he considers that there was good reason why the complainant did not institute proceedings at an earlier date, after consultation with the complainant and the respondent”.
Under the CDM, if permission is given, a complaint is laid before a priest’s diocesan bishop or, in the case of a bishop, the archbishop of the province. The complaint can be dismissed, or other courses of action can be taken, including no further action and penalty by consent. In the absence of consent, the bishop may direct that the complaint is to be formally investigated, which can result in a disciplinary tribunal. Penalties vary from a rebuke to removal from office, limited prohibition, or prohibition for life.
Failure to report allegations of abuse, as set out in statutory guidance (Managing Allegations), is prima facie misconduct, as defined by the CDM. Whether proceedings are initiated depends on a range of factors. In the absence of statutory guidance before 2016, this will include what legal duties office-holders had at the time, drawing on relevant case law.
The Makin review states that, while the concept of safeguarding was in its infancy in the 1980s, “the importance of protecting of children from physical harm was a widely known societal issue of concern,” and “reliance on the then current legal and cultural framework is not a reasonable explanation for the level of actions taken, particularly by those that read the Ruston Report.”
The latest Guidance on Penalties, issued by the Clergy Discipline Commission, states that “intentional disregarding of safeguarding policy will likely lead to removal from office and a limited prohibition.”
It continues: “Where the cleric has been neglectful or inefficient in the performance of safeguarding duties (regardless of how the allegation is framed) it may be appropriate to impose a rebuke. However, account should be taken of the respondent’s age, experience, and seniority. Where the misconduct takes place over a prolonged period of time and has put others at risk, removal from office and a limited prohibition should follow.”
The 2022 report of the Clergy Conduct Measure (CCM) implementation group concluded that the CDM was not well-equipped to deal with safeguarding-process failures — many of which would not constitute “serious misconduct”. Under the new CCM, a new “misconduct” track has been introduced.
In 2021, two “core groups” (formed to manage every safeguarding concern or allegation involving a church officer) recommended that no further action be taken in the case of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Lincoln. All of the ten clergy named by the NST are said to have learned of Smyth’s abuse before the Channel 4 News exposé in 2017.
