Top private schools Scottish child abuse inquiry, Archbishop admits Church ‘failed terribly’ over abuse revelations

Top private schools included as part of Scottish child abuse inquiry

Inquiry chair Lady Smith has said more than 100 locations so far have been identified for investigation, including current and former boarding schools

Tuesday 31 January 2017
More than 60 residential care establishments including several top private schools are being investigated by Scotland’s national child abuse inquiry.

They are among more than 100 locations where the abuse of children is said to have taken place, chair Anne Smith confirmed.

Six boarding schools or former boarding schools, including Fettes college and Gordonstoun, are being investigated. Several faith-based organisations, other major care providers and local authority institutions are also being looked at by inquiry staff.

Lady Smith, a senior judge who was appointed to the role in July, named a list of places being investigated as she provided an update on the inquiry’s progress at a preliminary hearing.

The inquiry is examining historical allegations of the abuse of children in care and has been taking statements from witnesses since last spring....
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/31/top-private-schools-included-as-part-of-scottish-child-abuse-inquiry


Archbishop admits Church ‘failed terribly’ over abuse revelations
Cathy Newman Presenter 1 Feb 2017 UK

The Church of England has tonight apologised unreservedly after a Channel 4 News investigation revealed that a prominent Anglican evangelical and former colleague of the Archbishop of Canterbury is alleged to have severely assaulted boys and young men for decades.

The alleged abuse was carried out by prominent QC and part time judge called John Smyth, who was chairman of the Iwerne Trust, a charity closely linked to the church which ran Christian holiday camps for public school students.

The Church admitted that it had “failed terribly”, after this programme learned that the Trust had discovered the alleged abuse in 1982, but failed to report it to the police.

Winchester College, where some of the young men met Smyth, was made aware of the alleged abuse, but also failed to report it to the police at the time. There is no suggestion that any abuse took place at the College or with the knowledge of its staff.

The Archbishop’s apology comes after a six month investigation by Channel 4 News, in which we tracked down and spoke with many of Smyth’s alleged victims. One man told us that he and other boys were beaten so violently by Smyth that they had to wear nappies to staunch the bleeding....

It described what it called the “beatings” of 22 young men.

“The scale and severity of the practice was horrific…8 received about 14 thousand strokes: 2 of them having some 8000 strokes over three years,” the document, written in 1982, noted.

Despite the findings of the report, the Iwerne Trust did not inform the police. Instead, a senior figure in the Iwerne Trust wrote to John Smyth, telling him to leave the country. He went on to live in Zimbabwe, and then South Africa....
https://www.channel4.com/news/archbishop-admits-church-failed-terribly-over-abuse-revelations