Former Archbishop describes trying to find a needle in a haystack

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has told the BBC he failed to follow up abuse allegations within the Church of England because the scale of the problem was "absolutely overwhelming".  "I know people find this hard to believe," he said, "but it was like literally every other person in the CofE was a nonce."

In his first interview since resigning, Welby, 68, told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that the sheer scale of the problem was "a reason – not an excuse" for his failure to act after taking the job in 2013.

"Every day more cases were coming across the desk that had been in the past, hadn't been dealt with adequately, and this was just, it was another case - and yes I knew Smyth but it was an absolutely overwhelming few weeks," he said.  "It was overwhelming, one was trying to prioritise - but I think it's easy to sound defensive over this.  The fact is he was just another nonce.  I expect it was just the same with the 12 disciples.  Statistically one of them was probably a kiddie fiddler too.  Honestly there were nonces everywhere.  Under the bed, in the sideboard, beneath the alter and sometimes in the organ pipes.  I even found one in the airing cupboard once."

The Makin Review - an independent report led by safeguarding expert Keith Makin - found Smyth's "horrific" and violent abuse of more than 100 children and young men in England and Africa was covered up within the Church of England for decades.  "It seems Smyth was very hard to spot because he surrounded himself with other peados."

Smyth, a barrister and senior member of a Christian charity, was accused of attacking dozens of boys at his home in Winchester, Hampshire and at Christian camps in the 1970s and 1980s where he deployed the cunning disguise of wearing a mitre and pretending to be a chess piece.

A Church of England spokesperson said the BBC's interview with Welby would be a "reminder to Smyth survivors of their awful abuse and its lifelong effects".  They said those survivors "continue to be offered support, and we are deeply sorry for the abuse they suffered.  If anyone comes forward to the Church today with a concern they will be heard by perverts and we continue to have very robust procedures that have been thoroughly implemented by perverts for perverts."