‘Prison isn’t good enough for him...’
“IF HE had killed himself over this, that would not have been good enough.”
Mark Stonelake’s victim was just five years old. She should have been laughing and playing at her babysitter’s house. Instead she was being led away by her sitter’s sick brother, locked in a room and abused.
Last week Stonelake was finally jailed for his crimes.
But justice was only done after years of built-up anger finally drove his once helpless victim to hunt down the man she says “ruined” her life.
“I hate PVA glue,” she said. “He would put it on his hands and got me and my brother to peel it off. I think it was his way of grooming me and getting me used to touching him.”
She added: “The babysitter had a horse outside in the back garden and while she was outside he would take me to his room. He would say, ‘I’ve got a piano upstairs.’ First of all it would just be the piano but it escalated from there.
“After going upstairs into his room on a regular basis, he just started touching me in places he shouldn’t have been touching me and he would put porn on. He would put his penis in my hands and feet, that’s the most prominent memory. He used to lock me in his room and say I could play the piano if I did this or that.”
Stonelake – a 42-year-old virgin from Cwmdare, Aberdare, but a teenager at the time – eventually lost interest in his victim when she turned eight years old.
After years of abuse, he just stopped. But the torture he inflicted led his victim to self-harm and attempt suicide.
“He’s ruined my life. I have suffered from mental disabilities since I was a child. I am on anti-psychotics, antidepressants, health-wise I am on a daily intake of medication to keep me under control.
“I have developed a personality disorder. I have had anxiety and depression issues since I was younger, it sent me spiralling and I couldn’t cope. I selfharmed and tried to commit suicide.
“I had hopes and dreams – growing up I wanted to be a vet. I love animals but I don’t like being touched and I can’t hold down a job. It just instantly takes me back 20-odd years and makes me snap.”
In 2018, in the wake of Operation Yewtree and the #MeToo movement, she finally felt strong enough to contact South Wales Police.
Despite fearing that Stonelake would never be found or that he would deny the accusation, police were able to track him down. When they questioned him, he frankly admitted his crimes.
“I needed to face my fear and face him to close a chapter in my childhood and I wanted to try and get it behind me once and for all.”
Stonelake was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
His victim has some closure, but her anger has not subsided.
“If he had killed himself over this sentencing, that wouldn’t have been good enough,” she says now.
“I don’t think prison is good enough for him. I think he should be hung for playing with kids like that.”
She is now urging others like her not to be afraid to come forward.
“I would tell people not to be afraid – things have changed these days. Even after a certain amount of years I came forward when I felt strong enough.
“Whoever is going through this, young or old, male or female, it’s not OK for them to go through it. They need to come forward and bring the predator to justice. There is help out there.”
For confidential support the Samaritans can be contacted free around the clock 365 days a year on 116 123.