Reporter Cathy Newman of London’s Channel 4, who brought John Smyth to public attention with her doorstop interview of him in South Africa, has done a comprehensive follow-up documentary about Smyth’s wife, son, and daughters. They all express horror and shame about the legacy of the British barrister who managed to convince an estimated 130 boys that they needed to “bleed for Christ” by allowing him to beat their backsides with canes and other objects.
The Channel 4 documentary, See No Evil, is not yet available to viewers outside of the United Kingdom, but several videos on the network’s YouTube channel cover much of the same territory: Smyth’s widow coming to terms with her years of silence, Smyth’s children struggling with how their father inflicted such widespread suffering, and Andy Morse, a longtime victim of Smyth, finding friendship with Peter (P.J.) Smyth and expressing his forgiveness to the Smyth family.
ITV’s Good Morning Britain sets the scene by introducing two of the central characters. “My wall of denial held for about 40 years,” P.J. Smyth says on the show. P.J. Smyth served as a pastor in South Africa and in the United States, and voluntarily paused his ministry in 2021 as investigators looked into when Smyth knew of his father’s abuse of other boys.
In a segment lasting just over six minutes, Anne Morse speaks of how her husband broached the possibility of imposing his hardline discipline on the boys in a youth group he led. She says her husband described the discipline as “a whack or two.” Anne Smyth says she expressed doubt about the propriety of punishing other people’s children, but she did not persuade her single-minded husband.
A segment lasting 10½ minutes focuses on the Rev. David Fletcher, whom Channel 4 and the Makin Report both describe as helping Smyth to cover up his beatings of English schoolboys who attended the Iwerne Trust’s camps that Smyth led. Fletcher died in 2022. The Iwerne camps focused on boys from privileged backgrounds who were likely to become church and government leaders in their adulthood.
A woman named Jennie, who has moved to Australia, described being violated by Fletcher in her teenage years. Two other women who said Fletcher abused them describe him as being more important within the Iwerne movement than John Smyth.
A segment lasting 26 minutes includes a lengthy interview with P.J. Smyth
He recalls a time when he was fighting cancer as an adult. His parents visited him in the hospital, but comfort was not forthcoming from his father. P.J. Smyth said his father listed seven ways that P.J. had dishonored his parents, and asserted that his cancer was punishment for these dishonoring behaviors.
He expresses sorrow that he did not protect his sisters from his father’s abuses.
Reporter Cathy Newman hands him a letter from one of the victims, named Graham. As he reads it, P.J. Smyth sighs deeply and cries, and nods his head. Graham, like Andy Morse, extends a hand of friendship and dreams of standing side by side with P.J.
A segment of 13½ minutes focuses on Smyth’s time in Africa, and reporter Amelia Jenne tells this story.
The segment includes an interview with Archbishop Thabo Makgoba. A reporter tells Makgoba that he did not warn neighboring churches adequately, and he urges Makgoba to apologize.
A segment lasting 30 minutes features an extensive interview with Archbishop Justin Welby by Cathy Newman. Welby has not yet resigned by this time, and says he will not resign.
He speaks repeatedly about the need for a better system to handle complaints of abuse. He clashes with Newman frequently about what he knew before 2013.
He agrees that it was “quite wrong” not to meet with Smyth’s victims for three years (2017-20).
Newman asks if his failing was incompetence rather than coverup. “I’ll give you that one,” he says.
Though he appeals to process frequently, Welby recognizes the limits of relying only on process: “You can have kindness without process and nothing happens. You can have process without kindness and you do harm.”
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
