A part-time judge and friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury said he was addicted to sleeping pills at the time he was accused of subjecting boys to savage sado-masochistic beatings.

John Smyth QC, who ran Christian holiday camps attended by the Most Rev Justin Welby in the late Seventies, told church leaders his “extraordinary aberration of judgment” was linked to his addiction to prescription medication. Hampshire Police this week launched an investigation into Mr Smyth, who left Britain when the beating allegations came to light in the early Eighties, moving to Zimbabwe, where he also faces abuse claims.

The Archbishop issued an “unreserved and unequivocal” apology after it emerged that senior figures in the Church did not report Mr Smyth to the police when victims - some of whom were pupils at Winchester College - reported the allegations in 1982.