Peter Smith

Smith was born on 21 October 1943 in Battersea, London, England. He was educated at Clapham College, then an all-boys Catholic voluntary-aided grammar school. He studied at Exeter University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in law. He then undertook studies for the priesthood at St. John's Seminary in Wonersh and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome (earning his doctorate in canon law).

In March 2015 it was heard at Southwark Crown Court that Smith was one of two bishops responsible for allowing Anthony McSweeney to be appointed as a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia following an incident in 1998 in which "a housekeeper found what she said were pornographic images at his [McSweeney's] home". The matter was regarded by Smith as an incident for clergy discipline and not investigated by the police. McSweeney has since been jailed for abusing boys at the Grafton House children's home between 1978 and 1981.