Cape Town - A former UK barrister living in Cape Town is under investigation by police in his home country for the alleged abuse of boys at Christian-based holiday camps he ran in the UK and Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, nobody knew that John Smyth, who arrived in the country four years after independence, was a disgrace in the UK.
Smyth went to Zimbabwe, saying "God had called him to Africa", and he established Zambezi Ministries and ran holiday camps, mainly for boys, similar to those he ran in the UK.
Parents of boys who attended his camps – usually held at private schools during the holidays – did not know their sons were reportedly obliged to walk around naked with Smyth and shower with him, that he would reportedly sleep among them and encourage them to talk about masturbation.
And some of the boys later claimed he beat them.
When a few details of his behaviour in the UK emerged, via a book written by John Thorn, a former headmaster of Winchester, one of the UK’s most famous public schools and where Smyth held his camps, he was finally questioned in Zimbabwe about allegations about his previous behaviour.
The UK’s Channel 4 alleged this week that Smyth beat 22 men in the shed in the garden of his UK home. The camps continued in Zimbabwe but he was charged in Harare with culpable homicide in 1992 after a youngster at one of his camps went skinny dipping at night and drowned.
Smyth was also charged with injuring the dignity of several other boys who claimed they had been savagely beaten by him. The culpable homicide case against him eventually collapsed and the other charges were withdrawn.
Soon afterwards, Smyth left Zimbabwe and came to South Africa.
Some of the boys, now men with their own families, told Channel 4 their accusations at the time against Smyth were true.
Smyth, 75, now lives in Cape Town with his wife, Anne, where he used to run Justice Alliance for South Africa, a small campaign group.
The group said on Friday that Smyth had been told to resign after the claims emerged.
UK police said this week they had launched an investigation into Smyth’s behaviour at his camps.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who met Smyth and worked at one of the camps, described him as “charming and delightful” but has since issued an “unequivocal and unreserved” apology for the Church of England’s mishandling of allegations regarding physical abuse.