Warning: Graphic and distressing content

The Church of England has been rocked to its foundations by a sadomasochistic barrister. The archbishop of Canterbury has resigned for failing to blow the whistle, and more incurious high clerics will follow. So will the reputation of Mary Whitehouse, feted by our evangelicals for her attacks on homosexuals: she brought John Smyth, QC, to Australia in 1984 to expound their beliefs in “muscular Christianity”. That was the name they gave to his perverted beating of schoolboys, committed and covered up with the help of his legal distinction.

Smyth is not a priest, so he cannot be defrocked, but can he, posthumously, be de-silked?

John Smyth was allowed to move abroad in the full knowledge of church officials, where he continued to act with impunity. Credit: Channel 4 News

Smyth’s fame, as Whitehouse’s QC, gave........

© The Sydney Morning Herald