Smyth-linked minister's licence removed after review

A Church of England minister has had his licence to practise removed after being named in a scathing review into the prolific serial abuser John Smyth.

Reverend Nick Stott – a pastor in Cheltenham - had attended camps with Smyth and then helped organise and fund them in Zimbabwe.

The Makin review says Rev Stott was advised not to join Smyth and his mission in Zimbabwe, but he still chose to go.

There is no suggestion he committed any abuse. The Diocese of Gloucester has declined to comment on Rev Stott's behalf.

The review outlined how Rev Stott was told of “an issue” with Smyth in the 1980s, but says the details were not disclosed to him.

He was also said to have witnessed “surprising” behaviour on one of Smyth’s camps where abuse is now known to have taken place and says he was first on the scene following the death of a 16-year-old boy who drowned while swimming naked at a camp run by Smyth in 1992.

By 2001 Rev Stott was head of the Zambesi Trust UK charity which provided financial support to Smyth while he was living in southern Africa.

He told the Makin review he wishes he had done more once he was told of concerns about the disgraced barrister.

At the time he felt “it was not his place to go investigating rumours and, in hindsight, he wishes he had done so,” according to the review which included criticisms of Church of England leaders that led to the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

Rev Stott told the review he was confident “any matters would have been investigated and dealt with by people he trusted".

Since the publication of the Makin review, dioceses across the country alongside the Church of England’s national safeguarding team have been carrying out reviews of people named in it.

The diocese of Gloucester confirmed as part of that review Mr Stott’s permission to officiate (PTO) has been removed.

The Bishop of Gloucester, the Right Revd Rachel Treweek and the Bishop of Tewkesbury, the Right Revd Robert Springett say: “The Makin report on John Smyth makes sickening and sobering reading. That this level of abuse could be going on in the Church and other institutions, and knowingly by so many, is abhorrent and disturbs us to our core.

“As Bishops in the Church of England we are profoundly sorry for the hurt, the pain and the suffering which victims and survivors of John Smyth’s abuse have endured, and we are ashamed at the Church’s response to the allegations.

"We are also appalled that any clergy person could believe that covering up abuse was justified in the name of the Gospel.”

The removal of Rev Stott’s PTO follows the announcement that another minister linked to the Zambesi Trust had agreed to step back from her duties.

The Makin Review found it was likely Reverend Sue Colman, an associate minister in Oakley, Hampshire, and her husband “had significant knowledge” of abuse in the UK and Africa.

They both served as trustees of the Zambesi Trust UK, which ceased to exist in 2018.

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