UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
Telegraph Reporters
6 FEBRUARY 2017
The Bishop of Guildford Andrew Watson has revealed he was one of the boys subjected savage sadomasochistic beatings by barrister John Smyth.
In a statement issued this afternoon, he said: “I am one of the survivors of John Smyth’s appalling activities in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. I am also one of the Bishops in the Church of England.
“This has placed me in a unique and challenging position when it comes to the events of the past few days. My own story is certainly less traumatic than that of some others.
John Smyth QC, a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is being investigated by police over claims that he beat 22 teenagers in his garden shed in the late Seventies.
A report by the Iwerne Trust, the charity that ran the Christian camps at which Mr Smyth met many of the victims, documents how he persuaded one of the boys to assist with the attacks.
The Right Reverend Watson added: “I was drawn into the Smyth circle, as they were, and the beating I endured in the infamous garden shed was violent, excruciating and shocking; but it was thankfully a one-off experience never to be repeated.
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