TO the outside world, John Smyth was a devout preacher who gave up his time to run summer activity camps for teenage boys.
But to over 100 victims, he was a sadistic monster, who made boys strip before brutally beating them with a cane – for up to 12 hours.
Evil Smyth would even carry out his sickening abuse in the family’s garden shed – telling his wife and family that he was praying with the teens, and placing a white flag outside to warn them not to come near.
Many were thrashed with canes until they bled, groomed through an extensive network of ‘Bash camps’ and forced to wear nappies to cover their horrendous injuries.
He claimed each brutal attack was because the lad had been “sinning” and when his vile crimes, which spanned four decades, were discovered they were covered up by the Church of England.
Smyth, a QC barrister, gained access to his alleged victims through the Christian Iwerne Trust camps in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as through Winchester College’s Christian Forum.
His sadistic abuse, which included giving some boys 1,400 strokes with a cane, are revealed in a new Channel 4 documentary, See No Evil – which also features interviews with his wife and children.
One of Smyth’s victims, Andy Morse, says: “At the end of a beating, John would lay down the cane, and he would come, and he would sort of drape himself over my back, and he would nuzzle his head deep into my neck, and he would sort of kiss me very gently, lots of small, sort of butterfly type kisses, and his face was wet with sweat, and his hands were clammy.
“In my nightmares now, it’s that creeping that I sometimes feel and wake up to.”
For six years, Smyth was able to walk in and out of the boarding school and chose the boys he wanted to target.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was one of those who attended the camps between 1974 and 1981, while Smyth was chairman – but he denies knowing about the abuse.
When the abuse was discovered in the UK back in 1982, and the Iwerne Trust complied a horrifying dossier of survivors’ testimonies, Smyth was asked to leave the camps and not to contact the boys from Winchester College – the £43,000-a-year school where Rishi Sunak was Head Boy.
But instead of being reported to the police, it was arranged for him to leave the country, meaning he was free to continue his abuse elsewhere.
Smyth – thought to be the Church’s most prolific serial abuser – moved his wife Anne and their three young children, Peter, Fiona and Caroline, to Zimbabwe where he started up Zambesi Ministries in 1986 which offered boys-only summer camps.
He continued his campaign of abuse there, and in 1992 hit headlines after student Guide Nyachuru, 16, drowned on the first day of the camp, following the boys being made to go skinny-dipping.
I could feel blood trickling down my legs. It was like I was in a horror film
Andy Morse, a victim of Smyth
But it wasn’t until the Iwerne Trust report fell into the hands of journalist Andrew Greystone, who had been asked by new owners Titus Trust to help provide advice on protecting their reputation, that the “stomach-churning” horrors became public.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Andrew said: “I was immediately put in a bit of a dilemma, as I’m not interested in managing the reputation of Christian groups who have covered up wrongdoing.
“It was a horrific story that they’d handed me. I was astonished that it hadn’t emerged, as it had been reported as long ago as 1982.
“As a Christian myself, I think they had picked me in the hope I’d side with them. To my mind, the right thing to do was to tell the truth. So I did after careful consideration.
“Since then, it’s taken over my entire life.”
Suicide attempt
For decades, many of the victims had been suffering in silence and struggling to comprehend what they had been through.
After finishing school, Andy went to Norwich for university and naively thought that he’d be out of Smyth’s grip.
Instead, the barrister asked Andy to be his daughter’s godfather and tightened his grip further.
After Sunday lunches at the family home, Smyth would take him to the shed – which was sound-proofed with layers of blankets.
Andy said: “He put out a white flag in the ground. It was just to let his family know not to come beyond the white flag, and we’d move into his shed. It smelled of wood and human sweat.
“It was a hell hole, and in the corner were a stack of canes. He asked me to undress, and he himself took his top off and just be wearing shorts and flip-flops.
“And then there was a bench to lean over. And that was almost the very worst moment, the anticipation of the first stroke. The physical pain was intense.
“I cried out every time I was hit. I remember gripping the bench as hard as I could as a way of masking the pain of what was going on. I would call out and I would cry.
Nearly everybody says that the way they’ve been treated by the church is as bad or worse than the initial abuse they suffered
Andrew Graystone, whistleblower
“He just exalted me to keep going and to keep taking more. It became hellishly hot. I could feel blood trickling down my legs. It was like I was in a horror film.
“The beating had been much more savage than I had anticipated. Afterwards, John put his arms around me and told me that he was proud of what I had done.
“Here was the complexity that a man I’d grown to love as a father figure, had now turned into someone whose intentions I couldn’t calculate.”
Son Peter tells the documentary: “Sometimes, boys would visit out to our house, and I would say to mum, ‘Where’s where’s Dad?’ And she would say, ‘Oh, he’s praying with a boy up in the shed.’ And I would accept that at face value.”
When Andy was 21, he attempted to take his own life as a way to escape the beatings and torment he’d been subject to since he was a teenager writing a letter to Smyth threatening to expose him.
“For my 21st birthday, John Smyth had told me that I needed a special greeting, and I knew what that entailed,” Andy said in the documentary.
“I was at my most tortured point in my whole life. I was losing my mind, and I could see no escape.
“I bought a box cutter and multiple bottles of aspirin. And I took them back to my student digs.
“And it was a relief. It felt like a release from the world of John Smyth and the beatings.”
Thankfully, Andy’s flatmates found him and had him rushed to hospital, and he survived the attempt.
Church failure
But Andy’s suicide attempt meant the abuse was finally exposed, and he believed that it would be a watershed moment which would halt the beatings for him and others.
He was told by one leading figure: “Andy, I want you to know that John Smyth will be held to account for what he has done.”
But instead of the Church and Iwerne Trust holding the father-of-three to account, they sent him away and suggested he leave the country.
Whistleblower Andrew said: “Nearly everybody says that the way they’ve been treated by the church is as bad or worse than the initial abuse they suffered.
“And I’m always shocked by that. I always check it out with them and say, Do you really mean that?
“But yes, the way that the church treats its own victims is as damaging as the abuse that they suffer in the first place.”
It was a hell hole, and in the corner were a stack of canes
Andy Morse, Smyth victim
In the wake of Andy’ suicide attempt, vicar Mark Rustin spoke to 22 victims and compiled the report, which was handed over to leaders of the Iwerne movement and later came to Andrew.
The report quoted one man who said: “I was bleeding for three and a half weeks.” Others reported 100 strokes for masturbation with eight young people receiving 14,000 strokes.
“It says the severity of the practice was horrific,” says Andrew.
Several leading figures have publicly come out since the abuse was made public confirming that they too were victims.
Bishop of Guildford Andrew Watson told the BBC: “The beating I endured in the famous garden shed was violent, excruciating, and shocking; but it was thankfully a one-off experience never to be repeated.”
He added: “I am personally aware that this is a time of heightened emotion for many (which I share), as the depth of Smyth’s brutality has been so clearly revealed; I pray for some kind of closure for those who have waited so long for it.”
New hunting ground
Once in Zimbabwe, Smyth’s MO didn’t change, and he continued to abuse boys at summer camps aimed at promoting “masculine Christianity”.
He flew under the radar for a few years, but in 1992 the death of Guide Nyachuru, 16, at one of the camps put him on police‘s radar.
Smyth claimed the teen had drowned during a skinny-dipping session on the first night – but the boy’s family protested he was a proficient swimmer.
He was charged with culpable homicide, but the case was dropped when he successfully got the prosecutor removed for bias as their younger brother had attended one of his camps.
As soon as it was dropped, Smyth upped and moved his family to South Africa.
However, Smyth couldn’t escape the abuse claims as Andrew was working with Channel 4 to look into him.
And in 2017, when he had briefly returned to the UK, Channel 4’s Cathy Newman doorstepped him to ask about the abuse, including some details his victims had told her.
Smyth, who was with his smiling wife, refused to address the claims and said “I’m not talking about that”.
He died in 2018 from a heart attack in Cape Town after refusing for years to cooperate with police who were investigating his alleged abuse.
Family trauma
Although Anne stood by her husband until his death, and was even pictured smiling next to him when he was confronted about his abuse, she says she was “anaesthetised” during their long marriage.
She reveals her husband had a “frightening” temper and admits she spotted worrying tendencies towards teen boys.
“He did go for fair haired boys and sporty boys,” she says. “I would watch his eyes, watching some boy with fair hair walking across a field or wherever, and I was concerned about that.”
But John’s children all paint a picture of an abusive, bullying man with Peter, who was a victim of beatings, remembering “a sense of dread in me”.
Smyth’s daughter Caroline said: “My mum was bullied by my dad, but she was beyond loyal.
“I think she believed very strongly in the cause and the call of God on his life, willing to do whatever it took in order for the work to get done.”
See No Evil is available on Channel 4 from December 10
