John Jackson Smyth QC (; 27 June 1941 – 11 August 2018) was a British barrister, judge (recorder), and serial child abuser who was involved in Christian ministry for children as chairman of the Iwerne Trust which raised funds for, and in practice ran, the influential conservative evangelical Iwerne camps. He was the lawyer for the Christian morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse.

In 1982, the Iwerne Trust was informed that Smyth had performed sadistic beatings on schoolboys and young men associated with the Iwerne Camps and with a Christian group at Winchester College. Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984, where he continued to run children's camps. The police were not informed of the 1982 report until 2013, and it became public in 2017. Church of England bishop Andrew Watson disclosed that, as a young man, he was a victim. Smyth's son in an interview reported that Smyth sadistically caned him as a child. Smyth died of heart failure while under investigation and was never charged.

An independent review published in 2024 concluded that he subjected more than 100 boys and young men to "traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks" over a period of four decades. The review found that his abuse was an open secret, which was covered up by "powerful evangelical clergy", and that the beliefs and values of conservative evangelicalism were critical to his evasion of justice, and to how he manipulated his victims. On 12 November 2024, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, announced he would resign due to the part he played in the church's failure to acknowledge Smyth's child abuse.

Early life John Jackson Smyth was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on 27 June 1941. He attended Strathcona School.

He and his family subsequently moved to the Isle of Wight in England, and he was educated at St Lawrence College in Kent. In 1960, he went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to study natural sciences, but switched to law in his second year. He received his BA (later MA) in 1963 and his LLB in 1964.

Legal career Smyth was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1965 and took silk as a Queen's Counsel in 1979. He was a recorder (with the powers of a circuit judge able to sit in the Crown Court, the County Court or the Family Court) from 1978 to 1984. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he lived in Winchester while practising law in London.

In July 1977, Smyth acted for Christian morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse in her successful private prosecution for blasphemy (Whitehouse v Lemon) at the Old Bailey against the newspaper Gay News and its editor, Denis Lemon, over the publication of James Kirkup's poem The Love that Dares to Speak its Name. He also initially acted for Whitehouse in her failed private prosecution of the National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's play The Romans in Britain in 1980, but withdrew from the case in 1982, which was stated at the time to be due to illness, but was later documented in the Makin Review to have been part of his agreement with the Iwerne Trust after they became aware of his abuse.

Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984 and to South Africa in 2001. While living in Cape Town, South Africa, he ran the Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA) for some years. JASA describes itself as "a coalition of corporations‚ individuals and churches committed to upholding and fighting for justice and the highest moral standards in South African society".

Smyth represented South Africa's Doctors for Life, and, as an amicus curiae of the Constitutional Court in May 2005, unsuccessfully opposed the legalisation of same-sex marriage in South Africa in Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie. Smyth claimed that to introduce same-sex marriage would result in "violence to the mind and spirit" of the religiously devout and would discriminate against them.

It emerged on 3 February 2017 that the board of the Justice Alliance of South Africa had asked Smyth to immediately stand down as the head of the organisation. His standing down was described as temporary, but his return was not thought likely.

Christian ministry, children's work and abuse

Having moved his family to live in Winchester, they attended Christ Church, Winchester, an evangelical Church of England church. From November 1973 to May 1974, he trained as a lay reader and, having completed his training, served at Christ Church. This made him an "office holder" in the Church of England, although readers are not ordained and remain part of the laity. He had attempted to be ordained in the Diocese of York in 1980 and in the Diocese of Winchester in 1981, and perhaps also the Diocese of Oxford, but was rejected at each attempt: the Makin Review concluded that "it is reasonable to assume that either something was known of John Smyth's abuse or he was considered to be unsuitable on account of something else". By October 1982, he was no longer listed as a lay reader in the Diocese of Winchester.

Smyth was chairman of the Iwerne Trust between 1974 and 1981. This organisation raised funds for (and in practice ran) the Iwerne camps; these were Christian holiday camps that had been founded by Eric "Bash" Nash to instruct boys from public schools (fee-paying, independent schools) in muscular Christianity and with a conservative evangelical theology, to become future Christian leaders, especially within the Church of England. Smyth first attended the camp as a university student in 1964 and acted as a leader, dormitory supervisor and lecturer. His lectures, to boys as young as 13, frequently concerned masturbation and sex.

Smyth gained access to Winchester College, then an all-boys boarding school near his home, through the Christian Forum (i.e. the school's Christian Union) from September 1973. The Makin Review identified 16 pupils who were abused and an additional six to eight who were groomed; it qualified this number with "we strongly suspect that the true figure is probably greater".

Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984, where in 1986, he set up Zambesi Ministries, which held summer camps for boys from the country's leading schools. In December 1992 a 16-year-old boy, Guide Nyachuru, drowned at the Marondera camp. Nyachuru's naked body was found in the Ruzawi School swimming pool. Smyth officiated at Nyachuru's funeral. A 21-page report by lawyer David Coltart was published in October 1993 and circulated to head teachers and church leaders in Zimbabwe. Smyth was arrested in 1997 during the investigation into the drowning of Nyachuru. Smyth always said that his death was an accident. The possibility of culpable homicide was, after a long investigation, ruled as unlikely, but the incident raised concerns about Smyth's behaviour towards boys in his care. The Makin Review revealed that he had continued his abuse of boys, including "beating with table tennis bat, enforced nudity, naked swimming, and showering" and that he had given "regular lectures about masturbation".

In 2001, the Smyth family moved to South Africa. The Makin Review suggested that there "is some evidence of John Smyth continuing to groom and potentially abusing young men in South Africa".

Smyth's career in Africa was funded by millionaire Jamie Colman, son of Sir Michael Colman, 3rd Baronet, and his wife, the Revd Sue Colman. Sue Colman told the Makin Review she was aware of the allegations against Smyth, and the review concluded that both likely had "significant knowledge of the abuses in the UK and Africa". Sue Colman was at the time safeguarding minister at Holy Trinity Brompton.

First reports An internal report from the Iwerne Trust in 1982, compiled by Mark Ruston of the Round Church Cambridge and Iwerne camp leader David Fletcher (employed by Scripture Union), referred to "horrific" beatings of "young men". According to Ruston:

Winchester College, with its pupils among the alleged victims, was informed about the alleged beatings but both the college and the trust failed to inform the police about Smyth. The headmaster asked Smyth to keep away from the college and not to contact its pupils.

In February 1989, John Thorn, the headmaster of Winchester College during the years that Smyth was active, released his autobiography, which included the following:

The independent review commissioned by Winchester College and published in January 2022 included the above passage from Thorn's autobiography and indicated that it was a reference to Smyth.

Further investigations On 3 February 2017, two days after Smyth was publicly named as an abuser, Anne Atkins, an evangelical Christian, revealed via an article in The Daily Telegraph that she had referred to him, although not by name, in a 2012 article; "'I haven't handed over a sex offender to the police - because I was told in confidence': A leading agony aunt makes an explosive confession" (Daily Mail, 20 October 2012). The article included the following paragraphs:

Smyth was first publicly named as an abuser by an article in The Daily Telegraph published on 1 February 2017. The article indicated that Channel 4 News would be broadcasting a report on Smyth's violent physical abuse of young men. The report aired the next day and showed Smyth being doorstepped by reporter Cathy Newman, while on a Christmas and New Year visit to friends in Bristol, England. Smyth commented that he was "not talking about what we did at all" and said some of the claims were "nonsense".

Shortly after the report the Bishop of Guildford, Andrew Watson, disclosed that he was one of Smyth's victims.

After the abuse became public, Graham Tilby, national safeguarding adviser for the Church of England, said: "Clearly, more could have been done at the time to look further into the case." Smyth was excommunicated from the Church-on-Main in Cape Town after church leaders said he refused to return to the UK and engage with police.

On 10 April 2017, BBC News at Ten reported that the English first-class cricketer and Caldicott School headmaster Simon Doggart had been abused by Smyth, but he also had administered beatings alongside Smyth to other victims.

Personal life and death In January 1966, Smyth met Josephine Anne Leggott. They married on 1 June 1968, and had one son and three daughters.

Smyth died from heart failure, aged 77, on 11 August 2018, at his home in Bergvliet, South Africa, near Cape Town.

Subsequent developments In June 2020, the Church of England removed final diocesan permission to officiate from George Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, having identified procedural failings either in his review of, or his failure to have other bodies review, allegations against Smyth. Permission was restored to Carey by the Bishop of Oxford seven months later.

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