Remorseless: Mark Sewell, 53, abused girls as young as 12 at his Jehovah's Witness church congregation in Barry near Cardiff, Wales, in a string of attacks that spanned eight years.
A Jehovah's Witness elder has been jailed for 14 years for
sexually abusing girls as young as 12. Mark Sewell, 53, raped one woman in his congregation in Barry, near Cardiff,
leaving her pregnant. He also molested one girl and abused two others in a string of attacks that spanned eight years. But when the victims reported him to the church,
a committee cleared him of all allegations - and shredded the evidence. Finally, after 19 years, he has been found guilty of eight counts of sexual abuse.
Judge Richard Twomlow told him: 'You were in a position of trust as a senior member of the church.
Your victims felt inhibited about what they could say because of your position as an elder. You caused distress in the lives of your victims who had the feeling they were disbelieved. You have shown not a thread of remorse.'
The jury heard how, between 1987 and 1995, he raped one woman, 'shredding' her underwear in an attack which left her pregnant. She later miscarried. One of his victims was just 12 when he kissed her on the lips and started giving her massages. Another girl was forced to take off her top while he massaged her, while a third was made to rub up against him. The jury heard he stripped to his underwear during one incident and bribed his victim with alcohol before molesting her.
During a three-week trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court jurors heard how Sewell would kiss the girl using his tongue and would pull her on top of his body as he lay on the sofa of his £200,000 terraced house in Barry.
Comment: Soccer is big business and winning is all that counts, because it translates into earning money. As long as success is measured in winning, nothing will change. In fact, in all these sports, aggression is cultivated, which often translates into aggressive behaviour of players off the field. Players are built up as role models, provided with celebrity status and showered with ludicrous amounts of money, just to push a ball around the soccer pitch - despite their pathological traits and misbehaviour on and off the play field, that get excused again and again.