Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigns over Church abuse scandal

The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned, days after a damning report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church of England.

In his resignation statement, Justin Welby says the report "exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth".

He says when he was told in 2013 that police had been notified, "I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow."

Smyth was not brought to justice before his death in South Africa in 2018.

Before Welby's resignation, one of Smyth's victims talked about the beatings he suffered.