My father was the Church of England’s most prolific sexual abuser: Daughter speaks for the primary time about John Smyth – the sadist who tortured boys in sinister soundproofed shed…however by no means confronted justice

The daughter of one of Britain’s most barbaric and prolific child abusers has spoken about her sadistic father for the first time on camera in a new TV documentary. 

Fiona Rugg, the youngest daughter of John Smyth, who abused more than 100 boys and young men in the UK and Africa, said he did ‘so much harm to so many people’.

Smyth beat boys naked for hours in a purpose-built, soundproofed shed in his garden in Winchester, leaving them bleeding to the extent that some needed adult nappies.

The family then moved to Zimbabwe where the horrifying abuse continued including forced nudity, beatings with table tennis bats, indecent exposure and groping.

Ms Rugg, 46, a businesswoman who is now married with two children, speaks about her father in a new two-part Channel 4 investigation airing at 9pm tonight.

She was aged just five when the family fled to Zimbabwe and was unaware of the abuse inflicted in the Winchester shed on a series of boys, including her brother PJ.

In an exclusive clip shared with the Daily Mail, she says: ‘We as his family understand that what happened in Winchester is nowhere near the full picture of dad and his abuse and his character, and how that has done so much harm to so many people.’

While Ms Rugg was never physically assaulted by her father, PJ was regularly caned in the shed – once so fiercely that he had to apply lotion to the welts on his buttocks.

The clip from the documentary ‘See No Evil’ also shows PJ revisiting the Winchester home where he suffered the abuse and the complex emotions he now feels there.

PJ says: ‘Being back here is a blend of memories. I have some good memories of playing in the yard with my sisters. I’ve also got a bit of a sense of dread in me. The dark cloud of shame around our family name, it looms very large.’

He was caned naked and once received 36 strokes, six for each of the subjects at school for which it was deemed he had not performed well enough.

PJ’s father kissed him between beatings and gave him a hug for ‘forgiveness’ when the punishment was over.

It comes after Ms Rugg spoke for the first time about her father in an interview published by The Times last Friday. 

Asked whether she loved her father, she replied: ‘No. I didn’t even like him. It’s a hard thing to admit, but I more or less hated my dad. I think, looking back, I realise fear and love can’t co-exist. It’s as simple as that really. I feared him always and I therefore didn’t love him.

‘He was very bad-tempered, very volatile. There was always a sense of walking on eggshells. His mood, how he was at breakfast, would dictate and set the temperature for the home.’

She said he bullied their mother Anne and was ‘constantly saying that she was stupid’.

Asked about when she heard he had died, Ms Rugg said: ‘I think I felt mostly it was a relief. I felt really sorry for the victims. My mind went immediately to them because they would never get perceived justice via the legal system.’

Senior clergy and church officers in England have been accused of orchestrating a cover-up that meant Smyth could continue abusing boys for decades.

Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury last year over his handling of the case of Smyth, amid claims the Church of England not reporting Smyth’s abuse in the UK from 1982 until 1984 directly led to his move to Zimbabwe, where he continued to prey on vulnerable boys.

While an internal investigation acknowledged the criminality of the beatings, the police were not told – and Smyth was instead encouraged to leave the UK.

In Zimbabwe, he set up the Zambesi Trust UK which funded his work and expenses – meaning he could host the camps where further abuse took place.

While in the country, the naked body of 16-year-old boy Guide Nyachuru was found in a swimming pool at one of the abuser’s camps in 1992.

Smyth officiated at his funeral and later called it an ‘unfortunate incident’. He was charged in the mid-1990s with culpable homicide regarding Guide’s death and criminal injury in relation to other boys who were harmed.

But the prosecution was discontinued when Smyth’s legal team, which was mostly led by the barrister himself, argued the prosecutor had a conflict of interest.

The Makin report into Smyth – thought to be the most prolific abuser associated with the Church – concluded Mr Welby did not adequately follow up on reports about the Christian camp leader and barrister.

The review, which was released in November 2024, said Smyth might have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported allegations to police in 2013.

Mr Welby initially said he would not resign as Archbishop of Canterbury over the report and remained in post for a further five days before announcing he would quit.

At the time, Mr Welby – who spent more than a decade as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury – said he was quitting ‘in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse’.

But in a later interview at the Cambridge Union in May 2025, Mr Welby said new evidence had come to light after the review which showed reporting was ‘fully’ given by clergy to the police, who asked the Church ‘not to carry out its own investigations because it would interfere with theirs’.

Over five decades between the 1970s until his death, Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.

While some 30 boys and young men are known to have been directly physically and psychologically abused in the UK, and about 85 boys and young men physically abused in African countries, including Zimbabwe, the total ‘likely runs much higher’, the report said.

Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and was ‘never brought to justice for the abuse’, the Makin Review said.

Despite his ‘appalling’ actions having been identified in the 1980s, the report concluded he was never fully exposed and was therefore able to continue his abuse.

In response to the Makin review, the Church of England said it was ‘deeply sorry for the horrific abuse inflicted by the late John Smyth’.

A statement added: ‘It was wrong for a seemingly privileged group from an elite background to decide that the needs of victims should be set aside, and that Smyth’s abuse should not therefore be brought to light.’

The Church also said that ‘every member of the Church is responsible for a culture in which victims are heard, responded to well, and put first’, adding: ‘We will continue to learn lessons about responding well which is reflected in our revised guidance and survivor engagement framework.’

See No Evil airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on Wednesday and Thursday