A cult-like evangelical Christian society at a leading private school allowed a powerful and charismatic barrister to groom and sadistically abuse boys with impunity, an investigation has found.
Members of the Christian Forum at Winchester college “showed signs of what would today be described as radicalisation”, said a 197-page review commissioned by the elite school into abuse carried out by John Smyth QC.
The school’s then headteacher, John Thorn, was informed of the abuse in 1982 but did not report it to police. Smyth moved to Zimbabwe, where he abused “as many as 90 boys, possibly resulting in the death of one”, the report said.
To understand these terrible events in their context, see my book Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the cult of Iwerne camps. https://t.co/X5RGYMRy2C https://t.co/FeVfoSVhBE
— Andrew Graystone (@AndrewGraystone) January 18, 2022