Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year

It’s Anti-Slavery Week

– Modern Slavery is an umbrella term that includes offences relating to human trafficking; slavery; servitude and forced labour

– Human Trafficking involves the movement of a person for the purpose of exploiting them, this could be for labour; sexual or criminal exploitation or organ harvesting.

It is an uncomfortable truth that Modern Slavery is a happening in Northern Ireland. Raising awareness of this crime and learning to spot the signs could make a big difference! For more info on spotting the signs see:

https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/news/be-vigilant-modern-day-slavery-happening-here-and-now-northern-ireland

By Robert Dunne.

Safeguarding is core business for any charity, particularly those such as the Church of Ireland, which provide a wide range of events and activities for children and young people including residential holidays and camps.

Good safeguarding practice has developed over decades because of the bravery of victims/survivors to speak out about the abuse they experienced, often in the face of fierce and powerful opposition.  Victims/survivors have to navigate their own self-doubts and inner critic and can then be faced by organisational or cultural resistance that seeks to deny, minimise or hide their experiences.

This courage to speak out is evident also in the victims/survivors of abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, a volunteer and leader with Iwerne camps that engaged pupils from private schools which were identified as being the most ‘elite’ schools.  These Varsity and Public Schools Camps (VPSC) and the abuse that occurred within them highlight that child sexual abuse occurs across society regardless of privilege.

In March 2021, the Executive Summary Report of an Independent Case Review into the abuse of John Smyth was published and is available to read at www.scriptureunion.org.uk in the Safeguarding section. This report was commissioned by Scripture Union in England and Wales which had a relationship with the Iwerne camps but in practice operated separately despite being the legal employer of some Iwerne staff.

John Smyth was a trustee of Scripture Union in England and Wales and Iwerne Trust; he was a lay reader, a legal practitioner, and a student of theology and is understood to have been an Iwerne Trust camp leader from 1964 – 1984.  Evidence available to the review suggests at least 26 victims of John Smyth have been identified in the UK and as many as 96 victims in Southern Africa.  There have been two confirmed deaths of boys at camps in Zimbabwe led by John Smyth and a number of attempted suicides among his UK victims.  John Smyth died in Cape Town in August 2018.

A recurring theme in this review is the way in which one person’s judgement (or that of a group of powerful individuals) was considered of more value simply by virtue of their background, status and affiliations.  The views of others deemed to be from a lesser status or background were dismissed and discredited in a way which alienated victims, other professionals, and parents.  Deference to power and status contributed to the abuse of children and made it even more difficult for their story to be told.

Culture evolves constantly and it is argued that you can’t judge behaviour in the past by how we understand things today.  That is not a reasonable argument in relation to abuse.  What is considered abuse now, was abusive in the past and should not have happened.

Victims of John Smyth stated that they felt there was a level of ‘wilful ignorance’ demonstrated by the wider evangelical community and that seemingly comprehensive accounts were actually studies in obfuscation.  Ultimately, there was a failure to safeguard and protect young people and the interests of powerful individuals and organisational considerations were prioritised.

This review highlights how these residential camps offered the ideal environment for someone with intention to harm children.  Aspects of this environment included:

• an over-developed sense of group allegiance and belonging;
• a strongly cultivated suspicion of and disregard for ‘outsiders’;
• the moral authority of clergy being perceived as beyond challenge or reproach;
• the misuse and misrepresentation of Biblical Scripture to justify and celebrate the infliction of suffering and pain;
• the abuse of trust, power, confidences and information – largely focusing upon issues of sexuality and relationships – which was used to shame and humiliate those who were harmed;
• persuading vulnerable young people that the disclosure of even ‘minor impure thoughts’ was necessary or noble and that suffering to atone for these failings provided a more direct route to a closer relationship with God reserved for an elite few.

Sometimes good safeguarding practice means standing up to power, speaking out or asking questions when our natural inclination may be to defer or trust those in authority.  This might feel rude, or scary, but the Church of Ireland has committed to a zero-tolerance approach to abuse and any aspects of the culture which ‘defer’ blindly need to be challenged.

If you have been affected by any aspect of this article or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Safeguarding Officers, whose details are available at https://safeguarding.ireland.anglican.org/contact  

“He ruined my life when he was supposed to be protecting me.”

These are the words of a survivor of the paedophile John McClean, a former teacher and rugby coach in Terenure College in Dublin, who was sentenced last month to eleven years’ imprisonment, along with a three-year suspended sentence, for his crimes.

The trauma and suffering that McClean caused so many young men over decades was heard in court forty-seven years after he abused the first child.

This subject, one victim said, is one that “no one wants to talk about and no one wants to hear.”  It is a difficult and painful thing to look at but we have to understand the nature of sexual offending better and we have to understand the impact of abuse better.  If we don’t, that lack of knowledge can be exploited by people who have the intention to harm children.

In a powerful article, RTÉ’s Crime Correspondent, Paul Reynolds, recalled the experiences of the twenty-three men whose cases were part of this prosecution and described some of the lifelong impacts they have suffered: “Psychological and psychiatric damage, anxiety and depression, a lack of self-confidence, failed relationships, post-traumatic stress, broken families and addictions to drugs and alcohol … suicide attempts, homelessness and criminality.”

This paedophile was aware of his own power and used it to abuse children and manipulate and control other adults.  He identified and targeted children who were particularly vulnerable, and used a combination of physical strength, pretended friendship, and fear, to abuse them.  He created situations to be alone with children; he was cruel, operating in plain sight, hiding “behind a mask of authority and a cloak of respectability,” and making connections with parents so he could work his way into families’ homes.

The immense courage of these twenty-three men led to this conviction but as far back as 1979 an allegation was brought forward but was dismissed by a member of the clergy as untrue.  What amount of harm and suffering could have been prevented if this allegation were handled differently?

The nature of paedophilia and the types of impacts described above are the reasons why, in both jurisdictions, the Church of Ireland has in place its safeguarding policies and procedures.  This is not an issue for one religion or organisation; this is a risk for every faith and every organisation and no-one must fall into the trap of imagining that ‘this could never happen in the Church of Ireland.’

Safeguarding is at the core of the Church.  As the former Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, wrote in the introduction to Safeguarding Trust: “Our work and ministry with children, and with adults who may (for whatever reason) be ‘at risk’, is a privilege but also a trust. We cannot betray that trust in any way if we are to fulfil our responsibilities as followers of a Saviour who came into the world that all may know safety and find salvation.”

If this article has affected you in any way, or if you require any more information about any of the topics covered, please feel free to contact the Church of Ireland’s Safeguarding Officers:

Robert Dunne, Safeguarding Officer (Republic of Ireland):
cpori@ireland.anglican.org
01 412 5661

Margaret Yarr, Safeguarding Officer (Northern Ireland):
cponi@ireland.anglican.org
028 9082 8860