Abuse and retribution: How the Church of England safeguarding scandals unfolded

1978: Mr Welby is overheard having a “grave” conversation about Smyth. Mr Welby has since said he has no memory of this nor knowledge of Smyth’s activities.

1981: Smyth takes four victims on a ski trip to Switzerland, visiting a church in Paris where Mr Welby worships while working for an oil company in the city. The church rector warns Mr Welby about Smyth, having been told by one of the boys what was happening.

1982: The Ruston Report, the first written account of Smyth’s behaviour, is distributed to a small group of people, apparently not including Mr Welby.

1991: Mr Welby is ordained as a deacon in the Church of England.

1993: In a separate case, the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, agrees that David Tudor, a priest who had been barred by the Church from being alone with children, can return under supervision.

2010: Stephen Cottrell is appointed Bishop of Chelmsford. In 2013 and again in 2018 he renews Tudor’s contract as an area dean in Essex despite knowing that Tudor had paid £10,000 to a woman who said he sexually abused her from age 11.

2012: Mr Welby is announced as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, succeeding Rowan Williams.

2013: A victim contacts the Church with details of abuse he has suffered at the hands of Smyth. Mr Welby is informed and led to believe that police have been made aware but this was not the case. Mr Welby allegedly writes to the Primate in Cape Town, where Smyth is now living, but the letter is not sent. However Mr Welby confirms he knew Smyth in the 1970s and requests contact be made with the holiday camps.

2017: Channel 4 transmits a documentary making Smyth’s abuse public for the first time. Mr Welby acknowledges he had been aware of the allegations for four years.

2018: Smyth dies aged 75 in Cape Town while under investigation by Hampshire Police.. Separately, the Church pays a six-figure pay-out to an alleged abuse victim.

April 2021: Four years after the TV documentary, Mr Welby meets some of Smyth’s survivors.

November 2024: The independent review by Keith Makin into the Church’s handling of the Smyth case concludes that his “abhorrent” abuse of more than 100 children and young men was covered up within the Church and that he may have been brought to justice had Mr Welby alerted authorities in 2013. On November 12, after seeing a petition signed by 11,500 people, Mr Welby announces his resignation.

December 2024: Mr Welby is criticised for a “tone deaf” speech in the House of Lords in which he light-heartedly suggests the victim of the events is his diary secretary. Eleven days later, Stephen Cottrell faces calls to resign as Archbishop of York over his handling of the David Tudor case. In his Christmas Day sermon from York Minister, Mr Cottrell says the Church must “kneel in penitence and adoration” this Christmas and “be changed”.

January 2025: The Bishop of Liverpool stands down after allegations of sexual assault and harassment. A member of the committee that appointed him in 2023 says Mr Cottrell and Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford, coerced members to change their vote despite safeguarding concerns about Perumbalath. His accusers include the Bishop of Warrington, Bev Mason. Stephen Cottrell and the Bishop of Oxford categorically reject any suggestion of coercion or bullying during a Crown Nomination Commission.

February 2025: The Church’s parliament, the General Synod, rejects a proposal to transfer all Church-employed safeguarding officers to a fully independent body. Two weeks later the Church initiates disciplinary proceedings against 10 members of clergy including Mr Carey and the Reverend Andrew Cornes, who was due to be on the committee picking the next Archbishop of Canterbury.