[4] On 2 February 2017, Channel 4 News broadcast a report from Cathy Newman alleging Smyth had violently assaulted boys and young men in England and Africa.
[5] After Smyth moved to Africa in 1984, he continued to run holiday camps and abuse a large number of victims.
[3] In August 2019, the National Safeguarding Team of the Church of England announced that it had appointed Keith Makin, a former director of social services, to carry out a "lessons-learnt" review of the handling of allegations of abuse against Smyth.
[3] [11] In an interview with Times Radio on 15 November 2024, Cathy Newman stated that the review had been leaked to Channel 4, which prompted the Church to publish it earlier than initially announced.
Church officers and others were made aware of the abuse in the form of a key report in 1982 prepared by the Reverend Mark Ruston.
They noted that the Makin Review had concluded that Welby bore responsibility for the failures of the Church of England relating to Smyth.
She felt that the Church's response to the Makin Review had been disappointing, that its leadership was failing, and that the Archbishop's position was untenable.
Makin said he was pleased with the review's impact and indicated that he had heard from a number of Smyth's victims, who felt that Welby's resignation was the right outcome.
[27] Andrew Graystone, a theologian and journalist, wrote a book, Bleeding For Jesus: John Smyth and the cult of the Iwerne Camps, which was published in August 2021.
[28] Winchester College commissioned an independent review into the abuse committed by John Smyth, which was published in January 2022.