The Archbishop of Canterbury is facing pressure to resign over a damning report into a barrister thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.
A petition by some members of the General Synod - the church's parliament - has gathered more than 1,500 signatures urging Justin Welby to stand down over his "failures" to alert authorities about John Smyth QC's "abhorrent" abuse of children and young men.The church leader has "lost the confidence of his clergy" and "his position is completely untenable", a vicar within the church said.
Mr Welby knew Smyth because of his attendance at Iwerne Christian camps in the 1970s, but the review said there was no evidence that he had "maintained any significant contact" with the barrister in later years.
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