From lead safeguarding bishops Joanne Grenfell and Robert Springett and national safeguarding director Alexander Kubeyinje

The Channel 4 documentary See No Evil is a harrowing reminder of the horrific abuse carried out by the late John Smyth, the failure of the Church to act, and the devastating effect on the lives of the victims and survivors and their loved ones, including Smyth’s family. Support has been and continues to be offered, including in the light of this week’s documentary.

We are profoundly sorry for the ways in which the Church failed to protect children and vulnerable adults and for the lasting impact of those failures.

As we said at the time of the publication of the 2024 learning lessons review by Keith Makin into the Church’s handling of the case, we are appalled that any clergy person could believe that covering up abuse was justified in the name of the Gospel. It was wrong for a seemingly privileged group from an elite background to decide that the needs of victims should be set aside, and that Smyth’s abuse should not therefore be brought to light.

We will continue to learn lessons about responding well. Last month an update was published on the ongoing progress of the Church’s response to the recommendations in the Makin report.

The National Safeguarding Team has taken out complaints under the Clergy Discipline Measure against 11 members of the clergy criticised in the Makin Review, seven of which are currently in progress.

The Church in South Africa has already carried out its own review. We have been in contact with the Church in Zimbabwe, where a young boy Guide Nyachuru died on one of Smyth’s camps, and offered to support and contribute financially to any review that it might choose to undertake, building on the review undertaken by David Coltart in 1993 who featured in the programme.