The fall of Justin Welby

John Smyth , a barrister who was authorised to preach in the Church , carried out sadistic beatings and sexual abuse of children and young men from the late 1970s .

Victims were told the beatings were “an appropriate step in their Christian progression” Many were groomed at Winchester College .

An investigation carried out in 1982 by Cambridge vicar Mark Ruston was kept secret in what the review identifies as a deliberate cover-up.

Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984 and continued to perpetrate brutal abuse.

Justin Welby has witnessed the fall of a personal hero, Jean Vanier , the Catholic founder of a charity for people with disabilities, found posthumously to have sexually abused women.

During his tenure the number of employees on the National Safeguarding Team increased from one (part-time) to 55 .

Welby was not inactive in response to such failings, however.