The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is under fire today for not taking sufficient action against a sex offender, John Smyth, who worked for the Church of England in a number capacities, most of them involving the care of adolescent boys, usually at public schools – Winchester especially. Wiki’s piece on him characterises Smyth as a sadist; and also reveals that he was a defender (as a lawyer) of Mary Whitehouse, the infamous campaigner for ‘morality’ – rather narrowly defined – in the sixties and seventies:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smyth_(barrister). There’s a petition on line now to persuade Welby to resign his own position as head of the Church. The issue may rest on when and how much he knew about Smyth. I know nothing more about him, apart from what I can find on the web.

The case however has reminded me of a similar one I was cognisant of in my younger days, and which I wrote about here, in a post that I think is worth republishing: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2016/march/clerical-abuse.

And then only yesterday I received a long email from my old school, telling of a music teacher there, one David Pickthall, who has just been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for sex offences spanning 40 years. That was after my time, thank God; but I do remember some other rather dodgy masters while I was there.

All this happened in all-male environments, of course. But I imagine it was worse for girls.