30 convictions in serial rapes of area women
Lower Saucon Township man now faces hundreds of years in prison
After deliberating more than six hours Friday, a Northampton County jury convicted Seth Mull of 30 criminal charges that he targeted multiple women through online dating apps, then attacked, assaulted and raped them.
In a crowded courtroom, women began crying with joy after the jury convicted Mull, 31, of Lower Saucon Township, of the majority of the 36 charges against him, including several convictions for human trafficking that could result in a life sentence.
Judge Stephen Baratta, who presided over the weeklong trial, said Mull faces the possibility of “hundreds of years in prison,” and revoked Mull’s $1 million bail. Mull, who did not take the stand in his defense, will be sentenced later.
As the jury foreman repeatedly read out “guilty,” to the rape, kidnapping, assault and human trafficking charges, Mull had no visible reaction as he hung his head down and stared at the floor. As sheriff’s deputies handcuffed him, several women called out, “Yes, it’s finally over!”
Assistant District Attorney Laura Majewski also had tears in her eyes after the verdict was read aloud.
“Today, the victims have closure and will be able to start moving forward in their healing process,” she said. “I also appreciate the fact that the community is now going to be safe and we don’t have to worry about another woman falling victim to Seth Mull.”
Mull’s attorney, Matthew Potts, declined to comment.
The trial included emotional testimony from four women who said Mull attacked them at hotel rooms in Bethlehem and Hanover Township.
The case also included testimony from a fifth woman who
was not among the Lehigh Valley cases, but testified that Mull raped her in 2014 while both lived in Pittsburgh.
That woman’s testimony was permitted under Pennsylvania’s rules of evidence. She said she met Mull on a dating app and he lured her to an apartment where he and a man she didn’t know raped her. She sobbed while recounting the pain and humiliation she felt during the attack.
Mull “instructed me that if I were to run or try to alert anybody that this was going on, he would kill me,” the woman said.
In all of the cases, the accusers say Mull claimed them as his property, assaulted them physically and sexually and threatened to harm them or their families if they didn’t comply.
Mull would force the women to do drugs, choke them until they passed out and, in some cases, sold them to other men for sex.
Authorities call Mull a serial predator who targeted victims starting when he was 13.
Potts conceded that Mull had sex with each of the four women but insisted it was consensual.
Mull was arrested Oct. 28, 2017, after police in Bethlehem responded to a Holiday Inn Express, where a 25-year-old woman reported he raped her, strangled her, burned her with a torch lighter and threatened to kill her.
The three other cases occurred in an eight-week span before that.
In the courtroom hallway after the verdict, dozens of women hugged each other, sobbing and passing tissues back and forth.
“The fear that they ever have to run into him in the street and knowing they are never going to have to see him again gives them the peace of mind,” Majewski said. “I think that tonight, they’ll sleep well for the first time in a long time.”
“I think that tonight, [his victims will] sleep well for the first time in a long time.” — Assistant District Attorney Laura Majewski