John Symth’s Victims And Their Families In Zimbabwe Hope For Closure
HARARE, Zimbabwe — “He hurt us. … Guide was an only boy in a family of seven girls. What he (the abuser) did was grossly unfair. May his spirit burn in hell!”
These are sentiments of Judith Nyachuru, the sister of Guide Nyachuru, the boy who died in 1992 at a holiday camp run by serial abuser John Smyth through his Zambezi Ministries in Zimbabwe.
For decades, the Nyachuru family has hoped for closure, which has proved to be elusive. When the scathing Makin Report released this past November — which ultimately resulted in the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby — recommended that the Church of England also probe the atrocities committed by Smyth in Zimbabwe, the family was hopeful.
Months later, nothing seems to be happening about the recommended investigation into the activities of the man described as “an unhinged tyrant and the embodiment of Satan” by John Thorn, the former headmaster of Winchester College, in his 1989 autobiography, “The Road to Winchester.”
“Not that I know,” Judith told Religion Unplugged when asked if anything had started regarding the investigations in Zimbabwe recommended by the Makin Report.
Even Douglas Coltart, the lawyer who investigated allegations of abuse against Smyth in 1993 and has been the focal person for the case in Zimbabwe, remains in the dark.
“I am not aware of anything other than that I have been instructed by the family of the late Guide Nyachuru to investigate whether damages can be claimed following the tragic loss of Guide in the 1990s,” he said.
The Church of England did not respond to questions on the status of the recommended investigation.
It is this ongoing silence that worries the victims of Smyth’s abuses in Zimbabwe — estimated to number about 80 — and their families, as it raises fears of potential cover-up attempts by church officials.
Rebekah Read, senior associate solicitor at U.K.-based law firm Leigh Day Solicitors, blamed the Church of England for historically dragging its feet when it comes to handling this particular case.
“These additional investigations cannot come quickly enough,” Read said. “The Makin Review and the police investigation into Smyth’s actions were announced in 2017, despite the Church of England having first had knowledge of the disturbing allegations as far back as 1982. This lack of action meant that Smyth had access to children in Zimbabwe and South Africa for decades after this. The Church should waste no more time in providing restitution for the Zimbabwean and South African survivors of Smyth’s sadistic abuse.”
Jason Leanders, 44, another of Smyth’s victims, told BBC that many of his friends are still “so traumatized by the beatings they are not even prepared to talk about it.” After initially agreeing to share his story with Religion Unplugged, Leanders later changed his mind, something that, according to Coltart, who has dealt with some of these victims, is not unusual.
“I think possibly there are still victims in Zimbabwe, perhaps in South Africa, who are suffering from PTSD, and I think the Anglican church has a responsibility to identify those individuals and to supply them with the medical assistance that they might require,” Coltart added.
Efforts to stop the abuses when they were taking place were resisted in Zimbabwe as Smyth enjoyed the support and protection of church leaders, lawyers and politicians.
“It was one of those embarrassing cases that had to be swept under the carpet,” a retired priest in Harare familiar with case told Religion Unplugged. “I don’t think the attitudes have changed much even now, it would be difficult to get the whole truth on this matter because a lot of church leaders and lawyers took part in this cover up and considering what has happened to Welby, there is even good reason to avoid any further investigation.”
Banned in the UK and moved to Africa
Smyth had been blacklisted in the U.K. after an investigation revealed he had subjected boys in the country to traumatic physical, psychological and sexual abuse. He had met most of his victims at Christian holiday camps run by a charity he chaired that was linked to the Church of England.
The 1982 report about the canings, prepared by Anglican clergyman Mark Ruston, concluded that “the scale and severity of the practice was horrific,” with accounts of boys beaten so badly that some of them had to wear nappies. He was also accused of promoting nudity and masturbation among the boys in his camps. The Ruston Report findings were not widely circulated, allowing Smyth to quietly move to Zimbabwe from Winchester in 1984.
Two years later, he has set up his Zambezi Ministries — with funding from the U.K. — and was meting out the same horrible punishments at the Christian holiday camps held at Ruzawi School in Marondera, a small town 45 miles (70 kilometers) east of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. Zambezi Ministries exclusively marketed these holiday camps at the country’s elite private Christian schools.
Starting in August 1986, the abuses went unchecked until 1993, when some parents of children from schools in Bulawayo — the country’s second largest city — complained about the severity of injuries that their children had suffered at one of Smyth’s camps, prompting some clergymen to engage Coltart to investigate.
After a torrid time dealing with Smyth and his army of sympathizers, Coltart’s 21-page report was then published in October 1993, and its circulation was restricted to a handful headmasters and church leaders, “conscious of the dangers of a defamation suit.”
According to Coltart’s report, Smyth — an influential barrister with the right contacts within the country’s Christian, judicial and political circles — was also accused of resorting to blackmail, threats and lies to escape prosecution. Some church leaders even defended him, claiming that the acts that had been deemed inappropriate in the U.K. were acceptable in Zimbabwe. Some accused the Christian church leaders from Bulawayo of being jealous and pursuing personal vendettas against Smyth.
But the protests and subsequent investigation caused Smyth to stop the beatings, and his camps continued in some other guises.
Coltart later instructed another law firm to pursue a legal case against Smyth, who was eventually charged with culpable homicide over Guide’s death, as well as charges relating to the beatings of many others schoolboys.
After the Coltart report and prosecution, Smyth and his family lived in Zimbabwe on temporary residency permits, which were renewable monthly. In 2001, upon their return from a long trip abroad, they were denied entry into the country, causing them to move to South Africa, where Smyth spent the last 17 years of his life. His sudden death in August 2018 — ahead of being questioned from U.K. authorities or facing extradition — lead to speculation about a suicide.
Commission set up in South Africa
In the aftermath of the Makin Report, the archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, immediately set up a commission to establish if the Church of England had been lacking in protecting young people from Smyth during the years that he was member of the church, but this probe has also been rocked by allegations of renewed cover-up attempts.
With two of the three panel members holding posts in the Anglican Church of South Africa, critics questioned the objectivity of the commission, pointing out that the church could not investigate itself.
These cover-up allegations ended up claiming the scalp of Jeremy Gauntlett, a senior lawyer and a member of the Anglican Church who had been appointed to the panel, only for one sexual abuse victim of Gauntlett himself to cry out in protest. This prompted the veteran lawyer to ignominiously resign from both the panel and practicing law.
“Smyth was protected in England and he was protected in Zimbabwe,” Leanders said. “The protection went on for so long it robbed victims the chance to confront Smyth as adults.”
Cyril Zenda is a Christian and an African journalist and writer based in Harare, Zimbabwe.