Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigns over Church abuse scandal
The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned, days after a damning report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church of England.
In his resignation statement, Justin Welby says the report “exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.”
He says when he was told in 2013 that police had been notified, “I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.”
“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024,” he says.
Smyth was not brought to justice before his death in South Africa in 2018.