A Channel 4 documentary examining the abuse carried out by late Christian barrister and camp leader John Smyth has won a BAFTA.
See No Evil picked up the award for factual series at the British Academy Television Awards on Sunday evening.
The two-part programme investigated decades of abuse committed by Smyth and the institutional failures that allowed it to continue unchecked.
Accepting the award, director Benedict Sanderson paid tribute to survivors and victims’ families featured in the film.
He said: “Thank you to the extraordinary victims, some who are here tonight, and survivors of John Smyth and to his family for their brave and brilliant testimony in the film and for trusting us to tell this strange, disturbing, haunting, but hugely important story.”
Researcher and author Andrew Graystone, who helped bring the story to wider public attention and appeared prominently in the documentary, joined the production team on stage.
Smyth, who died in 2018 and was never convicted, has been described as the Church of England’s “most prolific serial abuser”.
He abused boys and young men connected to Christian camps in the 1970s and 80s before moving to Zimbabwe and later South Africa, where abuse allegations continued.
Ahead of the documentary’s release last year, Smyth’s daughter Fiona Rugg spoke publicly about growing up with her father and the impact of his abuse on survivors and family members.
In an interview with Premier’s Woman Alive magazine, she said she never allowed her father’s behaviour to destroy her Christian faith.
“I never confused my dad with God,” she said. “I looked at Jesus in the Gospels, his kindness, his mercy, the way he championed women, and it was nothing like the man I lived with.”
Rugg also praised the courage of survivors who took part in the documentary, saying she was “astounded” by their bravery in sharing their experiences publicly.