‘Directly responsible’ Abuse victim blames C of E for suffering

Rocky Leanders, then 15, was beaten witha paddle by John Smyth at a camp where boys were made to swim naked

- Rachel Savage and Farai Shawn Matiashe

WHEN JOHN SMYTH gave a presentation at their school about his Christian holiday camps in 1993, Rocky Leanders and his friends were "blown away". "This is Zimbabwe in the early 90s; the technology wasn't great. These guys set up a projector with colour videos of speed boats...abseiling, golf, tennis, paddle boarding, swimming pools, diving boards," said Leanders, who was 15 at the time.

Justin Welby resigned as archbishop of Canterbury last week after a review into the Church of England's handling of claims of abuse against Smyth found he could have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally reported the abuse to police a decade ago. Welby says that when he was informed about Smyth in 2013, he was told police had been notified and believed that an appropriate resolution would follow.

However, questions are still being raised about why senior church leaders in the UK and southern Africa did not stop Smyth from abusing boys in Zimbabwe and possibly South Africa.

Smyth, who left the UK for Zimbabwe in 1984, was accused of beating boys and young men and forcing them to strip naked. He died in Cape Town in 2018 with a UK police investigation against him still ongoing.