DRAG ACT’S CHILD RAPE SHAME
CARDIFF BAR DEFENDS DECISION TO ALLOW CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER TO PERFORM DURING PRIDE WEEKEND
A POPULAR Cardiff bar has defended its decision to allow a convicted sex offender to perform as a drag act during Pride weekend in Cardiff.
Darren Sewell, who performs under the stage name Crystal Couture, was included in a bill of acts at Wow Bar’s Pride Without Prejudice free event on Sunday.
The event at Wow Bar referred to Pride on its flyer, but had no affiliation with the official Pride Cymru Big Weekend.
One person who was in the audience at the bar on Churchill Way said he complained to staff and that several people walked out in disgust at the act, which he said included jokes about prolific child abuser Jimmy Saville.
In 1999, Sewell was convicted of four counts of rape of a boy under 16 and was sentenced to three years in a young offenders’ institution. On his release, he was banned from having contact with children.
He was convicted in 2011 of breaching that order by working as a gymnastics and dance tutor with children in Cardiff.
Crystal Couture’s official website describes the act as “for audiences large and small and of all ages” and “available for wedding, christening, birthdays, and celebrations if [sic] all types”.
The eyewitness, who declined to be named, said: “I never realised it was him initially. So when he came on stage someone else in the audience said do you know who that is?”
He said he found articles reporting criminal proceedings against Sewell on his phone, and made complaints to staff at the venue.
“Myself and the other people who I spoke to about it feel it’s just giving such a bad message.”
He added: “No laws (have been) broken, but it’s the morals towards the community. They are allowing sex offenders to promote us during Pride.”
In 2011, Cardiff Crown Court heard Sewell, who was performing as a drag queen at Cardiff nightclub Minsky’s at the time, had spent three years teaching gymnastics to children as young as nine.
None of the gymnastics clubs knew of his previous conviction.
Sewell was a teenager when he was convicted of rape and was 27 when he breached the order banning him from having contact with children.
For breaching the order, he was sentenced to a three-year sex offender’s treatment programme, a 24-month supervision order, 300 hours unpaid work and a six-month curfew on electronic tag.
In a statement, representatives of Wow Bar confirmed that Darren Sewell performed at the club on Sunday, August 26, under the stage name Crystal Couture.
The statement read: “Mr Sewell, an established drag artist and singer, has preformed at many venues within Cardiff and around the country and is in demand due to his high-polished performance.
“The managers of all these venues have, like us, been made well aware that Mr Sewell was placed on the sex offenders list for a crime he committed in 1999.
“We know this as Mr Sewell has a legal obligation to inform any employer of this fact. Like most, and we would hope all venues do; we researched, we also talked to other venues that employed Mr Sewell.
“Mr Sewell’s crime from 1999 is well known to the Cardiff scene but the demand to see his show is still supported heavily. Our venue, no venue, would ever put anyone at risk.”
The Echo contacted Darren Sewell for a comment, but none had been provided as we went to press.