John Jackson Smyth, QC (27 June 1941 – 11 August 2018) was a British barrister and recorder, who was also involved in Christian ministry. In early 2017, reports emerged that he had performed sadistic beatings on schoolboys and young men who regarded him as a spiritual father. Anglican Bishop Andrew Watson disclosed that, as a young man, he was a victim. Smyth died while under investigation, so criminal charges were never brought against him, but an independent review concluded that he abused at least 13 people, and the abuse was also emotional and spiritual, as well as physical. Personal life Smyth was born in Canada on 27 June 1941. He attended Strathcona School, Calgary. His family subsequently moved to England, where he was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Trinity College, Bristol. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he lived in Winchester while practising law in London. He moved to Zimbabwe in 1984, and later to South Africa. Smyth died on 11 August 2018 at his home in Cape Town. Per a statement from his family: "The official cause of death has not yet been made known, but the indicators are that it was a sudden heart attack following a heart procedure earlier in the week." Legal career He was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1965 and took silk in 1979. He was a recorder (with the powers of a circuit judge able to sit in the Crown Court, the County Court or the Family Court) from 1978 to 1984. In July 1977, Smyth acted for Christian morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse in her successful private prosecution for blasphemy (Whitehouse v Lemon) at the Old Bailey against the newspaper Gay News and its editor, Denis Lemon, over the publication of James Kirkup's poem The Love that Dares to Speak its Name. He also initially acted for Whitehouse in her failed prosecution of the National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's play The Romans in Britain in 1980 but withdrew from the case through illness. Later, while living in Cape Town, South Africa, he ran the Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA) for some years. JASA describes itself as "a coalition of corporations‚ individuals and churches committed to upholding and fighting for justice and the highest moral standards in South African society". Smyth represented South Africa's Doctors for Life, and, as an amicus curiae of the Constitutional Court in May