Second victim of jailed church elder speaks out
7:47am Thursday 24th July 2014 in News
SPEAKING OUT: Tina Guy (8481415)
A SECOND victim of jailed Jehovah's Witness elder Mark Sewell has stepped forward to tell of her ordeal at the hands of the convicted rapist.
Tina Guy, a former employee of Sewell, has told of her horror at recalling an incident where she was driven onto wasteland against her will and locked in a car by him - only to narrowly escape from the man who had already committed rape.
When Sewell drove Mrs Guy onto barren land at Barry docks in the mid 90s, she had no idea that the boss who had targeted her with a campaign of suggestive behaviour and an eventual indecent assault had already committed a rape just a few years prior.
Sewell, 53, of Porthkerry Road, Barry, was jailed for 14 years at Merthyr Crown Court earlier this month after being found guilty of raping a fellow churchgoer, indecently assaulting two young girls - including his niece Karen Morgan - and also indecently assaulting Mrs Guy in their workplace.
Mrs Guy, a married mother-of-one from George Street, Barry, began working at Sewell's janitorial supply business in the mid 90s when she was 25 years old.
Soon after, Sewell began making inappropriate comments to her before advancing to trying to get her alone and make her sit on his lap saying: "give uncle Mark a kiss" - disturbingly similar behaviour to that used in grooming his 12-year-old niece Karen several years before.
Mrs Guy said that at the time she had only been in one relationship and was "naive". She didn't know how seriously to take the boss who seemed funny and playful, at first.
Also, she said, knowing that he was a member of the Jehovah's Witness church she assumed he must be a "good person".
Knowing now what Sewell - described in court as a "predator" who used his power to exploit and abuse women and girls - was capable of, one incident sends shivers up her spine.
She described how one day Sewell had approached her red-faced and furious while she was talking with another male employee and demanded she join him on a trip to a bank in Barry town centre.
He drove her to town and left her in the car while he went to the bank, something that immediately put Mrs Guy on edge.
On what should have been the return trip, Sewell took an unusual route before driving onto barren wasteland near Barry docks. He locked the doors, removed his seatbelt, leaned into her and began asking her for sex.
When she declined he asked her if he could "have a grope". He told her he would "look after her".
"I was scared, I didn't know what was going on," she said. " I was just looking out of the window hoping that someone would come along."
Demanding he drive her back to work, Sewell eventually gave up - only to end up sexually assaulting Mrs Guy a short time later, when he indecently rubbed himself against her in the office kitchen. Again a behaviour he had used in previous instances of abuse.
Mrs Guy only realised what a lucky escape she may have had that day when she heard the testimony of a woman raped by Sewell at his home just a few years before the incident, an incident that had left her unable to be alone in a car with an unfamiliar man for years to come.
"It was so eerie to think back to it," she said. "I don't know what might have happened.
"It took over my life for a while, it caused quite a lot of problems for a few years after."
Mrs Guy left Sewell's employment soon after to work at Barry Woolworths and some time later won a tribunal for sexual harassment against Sewell.
Facing Sewell in court along with his other victims and helping secure his imprisonment has given Mrs Guy a sense of closure.
"When I heard he had been found guilty, I felt physically sick," she said. "Because I knew that people actually believed us.
"We needed that guilty plea for peace of mind.