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The Archbishop of Canterbury has announced he will step down from his role following a damning report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church of England.<\/p>\n
The report found that Justin Welby, 68, had failed to act on reports of John Smyth’s “abhorrent” abuse of boys and young men.<\/p>\n
In a statement Mr Welby said: “Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.”<\/p>\n
He added that “it is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility” for his role in the response to the abuse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church.<\/p>\n
“As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.”<\/p>\n
He said over in the days since the report into Smyth’s abuse was published, he had felt a “profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The archbishop had faced mounting pressure to resign after it emerged that he had failed to act on reports of Smyth’s abuse of more than 100 boys and young men.<\/p>\n
The report by Keith Makin described Smyth’s “clearly sexually motivated, sadistic regime” of beatings during the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n
Smyth was a prominent barrister as well as a lay preacher – a member of the congregation who delivers sermons but is not ordained – who ran summer camps for young Christians.<\/p>\n
He was accused of attacking up to 30 boys at his Winchester home whom he had met at the summer camps during the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n
He singled out boys attending the camps and in sessions at leading public schools, including Winchester College, before taking them to his home and beating them with a garden cane in his shed.<\/p>\n
Some of the victims had to wear adult nappies because of the bleeding they had suffered.<\/p>\n
Smyth then relocated to Zimbabwe and South Africa, where he is alleged to have abused a further 85 to 100 “young male children aged 13 to 17”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n