An advocate for victims of the late Christian barrister John Smyth has accused the Church of England of protecting current serving bishops after it published a list of ten clergy who will face disciplinary proceedings over their handling of abuse disclosures in the John Smyth case.

Earlier today the Church of England said former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, the former Bishop of Durham Paul Butler and eight other clergy would face disciplinary measures over their handling of abuse allegations against Smyth. But only one is still a serving member of the clergy.

Speaking to Premier, Andrew Graystone who has supported Smyth’s victims for decades, said it was “an example of how broken the Church of England's internal safeguarding processes are.

“What's really notable is that none of the currently serving bishops, those who are still in post who were strongly criticized in the report, appear on this list of people who are going to be subject to the disciplinary process. So there seems to be a sort of immunity for bishops who are still in place and still at work.

“If you look at this list of people who've been criticized, it seems that the wagons have been circled to protect those who are currently working in the church, and particularly those who are currently senior leaders in the church, some of whom are named and criticized in the Makin review, but they're not on this list. And of course, because everything is done quietly and undercover, we're not going to know why. We're not going to have any justification or be able to question for any of these decisions.”

Smyth, who died in 2018, was found to be the Church of England’s most prolific abuser attacking boys and young men he met at Christian summer camps during the 1970s and 1980s.

In November, a report by Keith Makin found serious failings in the way the Church of England handled allegations against Smyth and the following month the Church began a process looking at whether those named present any immediate risk and consider whether there is a case for disciplinary proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure.

In a statement to mark the conclusion of the process, the NST said it would now seek to bring disciplinary proceedings against Bishop Paul Butler, Bishop George Carey, Rev Roger Combes, Rev Sue Colman, Rev Andrew Cornes, Rev Tim Hastie-Smith, Rev Hugh Palmer, Rev Paul Perkin, Rev Nick Stott and Rev John Woolmer.

Rev Cornes is also a member of the Crown Nominations Commission which is in the process of selecting the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Andrew Graystone added:

“It's no help in making the church any safer, and it's no help to those victims and survivors of John Smythe who have seen no justice over all these years.”