A number of Christian safeguarding professionals and prominent evangelical church leaders have voiced their support for William Taylor, Rector of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, after he disclosed that he too had been one of the late John Smyth’s many victims.
Taylor had wanted to keep the abuse ‘private, though not secret’, but had felt compelled to speak publicly after it had been implied on social media that he had covered up Smyth’s abuse.
Taylor stated that, ‘as a young Christian aged 20, I was deceived by Smyth and first beaten in his shed in August 1981. I recall being beaten twice more, the last in early December 1981. After that, I never went again’.
Disturbing online attack
John Stevens, National Director of FIEC said: ‘All the victims of both Smyth and Jonathan Fletcher deserve our greatest sympathy and prayers. I cannot imagine what they have been through. William is one of those victims. It is deeply disturbing that he has been re-victimised to such an extent by members of our constituency, who have attacked him with such vehemence online, in many cases either knowing or suspecting that he was a victim of Smyth. What has our constituency come to that this is the way that we behave toward one another?
‘Our hearts must go out to William and his family and all that they have had to endure, and for the invasion of their privacy that has been forced upon them. As the churchwardens rightly state, we must ensure that other victims are not treated in this way’.
Simon Bass, Director of the Church Safeguarding Consultancy, commented: ‘We were so sorry to learn of the abuse suffered by William. The great tragedy of his abuse has been compounded by the armchair warriors of social media, so that he has now felt compelled to break his silence in order to correct the situation’.
Steve Ball, joint-CEO at Thirtyone:eight, said: ‘We are sorry to hear about the abuse experienced by The Revd William Taylor that was perpetrated by the late John Smyth. We remain grateful to all those survivors who have come forward and acknowledge that for many, this has come at a great cost and demonstrated great courage’.
Other evangelical leaders approached for comment declined to do so, citing fears of a social-media backlash against them.
