Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Winchester and Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England, United Kingdom · 2024

Makin Review: independent inquiry finds Church of England cover-up of John Smyth's Iwerne camp abuse; Archbishop of Canterbury resigns

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

Iwerne camp leader and lay evangelical authority over camp attendees

Organization

Iwerne Trust, Church of England

Spiritual nexus

Smyth held direct pastoral and disciplinary authority as an adult lay leader over teenage boys and young men recruited through the Iwerne camps' evangelical Christian ministry to England's top boarding schools; beatings were framed to victims in explicitly spiritual and scriptural terms as chastisement for sin, and camp/church authority structures suppressed disclosure for over three decades.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-11-07 · published independent statutory-style inquiry finding

    Independent review commissioned by the Church of England (Keith Makin). The Makin Review found that John Smyth subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa to sadistic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse over five decades, and that recipients of a 1982 internal report into the abuse — including senior clergy — participated in an active cover-up that prevented the report from reaching the police or becoming public. Smyth died in 2018 without ever being charged. Publication of the review's findings led directly to the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on 12 November 2024, over his handling of the 2013 disclosure.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • spiritual mentorship and scriptural authority over boys and young men at Christian camps
  • institutional cover-up by camp leadership and senior clergy who received a 1982 report and suppressed it

Primary record

Sources

official report commission report 'The Makin Review', Church of England, published 7 November 2024.

The published independent review into the Church of England's response to allegations against John Smyth.

institutional reporting reference 'Makin Review', Wikipedia, accessed 2026-07-19.

Summary of the review's findings, publication history and the resulting resignation of Archbishop Justin Welby.

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