Archbishop was at summer camp ‘when friend was abusing boys’

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has changed his story concerning his links to an alleged Christian child abuser after documents reveal he attended a controversial summer camp.

John Smyth QC, a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is accused of carrying out sadomasochistic attacks on boys he met at Christian camps in Britain and Zimbabwe.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby, who once worked at the camps, had claimed he had left the country at the time of the alleged UK abuse incidents in the Seventies but new evidence has emerged that he did in fact attend the Iwerne Christian camp when victims say they were being abused.

The archbishop had insisted that he had moved to Paris in 1978, and had had “no contact” with the Iwerne Trust until his return to Britain in 1983.

In the mid-seventies he claimed he was a junior leader at the camps and was not in the “inner circle” but new evidence reveals he gave a talk to young men at the Iwerne camp in August 1979 at the same time Mr Smyth was there.

Last night the archbishop told Channel 4 News he had returned to the summer camp in 1979 and had not been in Paris as he originally claimed.

“Many of the officers in the camps gave talks at some point – there were approximately 14 talks per camp and four camps a year so this was not an unusual occurrence at all. A talk on reading the Bible, which I did as a oneoff in 1979, does not make anyone a member of an ‘inner circle’,” he said.

Channel 4 News has a programme of “talks in the library” showing that on Aug 20, 1979, Justin Welby gave a talk entitled “Why read the Bible?” He was among speakers, including Mr Smyth, who gave talks during July and August.

He added: “I was completely unaware of any rumours of abuse and I am horrified on hearing the stories of those who have suffered and keep on suffering.”