PJ Smyth talks to Channel 4 News’ Cathy Newman about the physical abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his “monstrous” father John Smyth. The Makin review detailed Smyth’s horrific abuse of those he met at public schools and Christian summer camps. What is less well known, is how Smyth senior controlled and abused his own family, who are only now facing up to the devastating toll on their lives. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The experience would start a long time before we actually got to the shed.
00:03We had this black book in the kitchen that my wrongdoings would be recorded in it.
00:09And when my dad came home from work, and he was sometimes away for days,
00:14he would read them and he would say,
00:17Peter John, it's time to go to the shed, which was synonymous for a beating.
00:22How painful was it?
00:28Extremely painful.
00:30He had a selection of canes and he had at least one tennis shoe.
00:37I remember there was tape around the middle of it to help him.
00:41And he didn't hold back.
00:45Beatings were six or 12 or 18.
00:49I remember one stands out.
00:52It was 36.
00:53And I remember it because it was six times six.
00:56It was six subjects in school.
00:59I got a bad report for each of them.
01:02And your mum handed out bandages and adult nappies.
01:07What are your memories of her role?
01:11She and my father would sometimes put cream on me if it had been a beating
01:21that wounded me to need cream, which was not uncommon.
01:27She was very kind to me whenever I got home after a beating.
01:31Do you think she was controlled by him?
01:34Do you think she was scared of him?
01:37My mum was at the epicentre of this magnetic field of my father's control.
01:44She was his, the closest victim to him for all her adult life, really.
01:53What words or word would you use as his son to describe him?
02:00Grand narcissist.
02:05Barbaric.
02:09Even monstrous.
02:11And my father.
02:15Flip.
02:22Flip.