Justin Welby, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has said his failure to take effective action over child abuse in the church because he was “overwhelmed” by the scale of the abuse crisis in the Church of England.
In an interview with the BBC Welby said that he got it wrong in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow on the Laura Keunssberg show
“Every day, more cases were coming across the desk that had been in the past, hadn’t been dealt with adequately, and this was just, it was another case – and yes, I knew Smyth but it was an absolutely overwhelming few weeks,” he said.
The archbishop resigned after an independent review found John Smyth – the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church – might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported him to police in 2013.
