Archbishop Makgoba to respond to panel's findings on sexual abuse allegations against Anglican Church member
Former UK barrister and church member, John Smyth, is accused of abusing young boys in the UK and Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s before moving to South Africa in 2001.
FILE: Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba. Picture: Supplied/Wits Alumi on Flickr
CAPE TOWN - The Anglican Church has been found to have failed to disclose to its congregants allegations of child abuse against a church member, and to mitigate the risk that the congregant might have carried out similar abuse while in South Africa.
Anglican Church Archbishop Thabo Makgoba ordered a panel to investigate how the Anglican Church of Southern Africa handled warnings of the alleged abuse against church member, John Smyth.
According to the panel's report, the Church of England did inform the Bishop of Table Bay, Bishop Garth Counsell, via a letter in 2013 about Smyth's ways.
Former UK barrister and church member, John Smyth, is accused of abusing young boys in the UK and Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s before moving to South Africa in 2001.
The panel, headed by retired Judge Ian Farlam, has also found that the Church of England swept Smyth's sexual abuse allegations under the rug.
However, the panel didn’t find any reported cases of abuse against Smyth in South Africa.
But it suggests that there was a very high risk that Smyth, who died in Cape Town in August 2018, may have abused minor boys in the country too.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba is expected to respond to the panel’s findings later on Tuesday and shed more light on the matter.