The brother of an abusive vicar who coated up assaults on young boys has died, prompting victims to say “the reality has died with him”.
The Revd The Hon David Fletcher has died elderly 89 following a 4-12 months combat with cancer.
He was once hired as overall leader of the Iwerne Camps from 1962-86.
He then become the rector of St Ebbe’s Church in Oxford, but rejoined the Iwerne Believe, serving as its chairman until the accept as true with was once closed in 2016.
He was also a member of the Titus Agree With, which assumed some responsibilities of the Iwerne Accept As True With in 1997.
He additionally ran the Iwerne camps, where a host of boys have claimed they were groomed through John Smyth QUALITY CONTROLS, a disgraced barrister.
Smyth, who was the chairman of the Iwerne Consider, performed sadomasochistic, brutal beatings on dozens of younger boys in his shed at his home in Winchester. He died of a center attack in 2018 elderly SEVENTY SEVEN at his house in Cape The Town, South Africa.
John Smyth QUALITY CONTROLS, performed beatings of young boys at his home in Winchester even as he used to be the chairman of the Iwerne camps
Rev Mark Ruston, the vicar of the Round Church in Cambridge, alerted Iwerne trustees to the beatings in 1982. His findings have been distinctive in the so-referred to as “Ruston Document”, which was once buried.
David Fletcher used to be one among the few individuals who won the file. However, he never suggested Smyth to the police. He also facilitated his relocation to Africa in 1984, gained understand of beatings in Zimbabwe in 1989, and call from the Zimbabwean attorney David Coltart in 1993. Neither he nor Smyth ever confronted any felony action.
David Fletcher also labored as curator at St Mary’s Islington and was the rector of St Ebbe’s, Oxford, from 1986-98.
His brother, Jonathan Fletcher, a leading evangelical vicar, used to be unmasked through The Telegraph in 2020 for abusing young men. He used to be stripped of his licence to minister, and it later emerged that he had subjected virtually 30 sufferers to ice baths, bare beatings and sex acts as a result of his former church, Emmanuel, Wimbledon, had created a culture the place he used to be “untouchable”.
‘Huge shadow overhanging his legacy’
Following David Fletcher’s dying, Smyth’s sufferers launched a press release saying that now, “part of our fact, our story dies. There are now issues we will by no means recognise, that we deserved to grasp”.
They delivered: “David Fletcher leads an extended, long listing of people who knew about Smyth over 40 years, didn’t stop him, and didn’t reveal the abuse to government.
“A generation of African boys won’t mourn his passing. Lists of those who knew got to the Church of britain and the National Safeguarding Staff virtually five years ago, but, no longer one has faced any sanction. David Fletcher dies, criticised, with a huge shadow overhanging his legacy”
“what’s going to make us so much indignant is the paeans of praise on the way to unavoidably mark his passing. in truth, he was once a person who coated up horrific abuse for FORTY years, and he should bear vital responsibility for Smyth’s proceeding abuse in Africa. Might that be his legacy.”
Jonathan Fletcher timeline
A spokesperson for St Ebbe’s said that he died at his home on Monday morning, adding: “We have fun that, after a four-yr fight with cancer, David is now at home with his Lord.”
Final month, an Inquiry into Winchester College concluded that the school’s cult-like evangelical pupil crew, the Christian Discussion Board, allowed Smyth “unfettered get entry to” to groom victims.
The review also contained a memo written via David Fletcher in 1982 following receipt of the Ruston File, wherein he said: “We didn’t inform the varsity authorities instantly as a result of we felt that such data could quickly be handed round and would harm Camp…”
The victims claimed that this “proves” that he “believed the recognition of Iwerne Camps was once more vital than the rest and would do anything else to protect Iwerne”.
The Scripture Union and Titus Accept As True With have been also contacted for comment.
