4.2 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
John Smyth is believed to be the most prolific serial abuser associated with the Church of England. In 2024, an independent review carried out by Keith Makin found that Smyth abused 30 boys and young men in the UK, and around 85 in Zimbabwe and South Africa. A new Channel 4 documentary, See No Evil, reveals the scale of Smyth's abuse and features testimony from victims and survivors, the journalists who uncovered the story, and from Smyth's family. Fiona Rugg, John Smyth's daughter, is part of the documentary and joins Nuala in the studio. Woman's Hour also hears from Madeleine Davies, Senior Writer at the Church Times, who has followed this story closely.
As the government announces plans to spend £500m on youth services in England, what is the state of youth work today? Nuala is joined by Abbee McLatchie, Deputy CEO of the National Youth Agency, who has been working in and around youth services for 25 years, and Letitia Simms, a youth worker for the charity Cranstoun in the Routes youth advisory hub in Dudley in the West Midlands.
Wages for housework was a feminist mantra in the West in the 1970s – feminist campaigners arguing for recognition of the economic value of domestic labour. The debate has been revived in India over the last decade with an estimated 118 million women across 12 states now receiving unconditional cash transfers from their governments. Devina Gupta, a reporter based in Delhi, and Professor Prabha Kotiswaran from King’s College in London unpick the impact of ‘wages for housework’ on women’s lives and the Indian economy.
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| 0:35.7 | Hello, this is Newell McGovern, and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast. |
| 0:40.3 | It is indeed. |
| 0:41.5 | Hello and welcome to the program. |
| 0:43.7 | Today, Fiona Rugg, the daughter of John Smythe, the man believed to be the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England. |
| 0:53.1 | Smyth abused at least 130 boys and young men. |
| 0:56.8 | You might remember an independent review last year |
| 0:59.1 | into the scandal led to the resignation of then Archbishop of Canterbury, |
| 1:03.3 | Justin Welby. |
| 1:04.2 | That interview coming up. |
| 1:06.2 | Also, the government is set to spend £500 million on the youth services in England, |
| 1:10.9 | as you were just hearing in the bulletin, |
| 1:12.8 | saying that the money is needed to revive the decimated sector. |
| 1:16.5 | We're going to look at what that might look like |
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