Darren Sewell/Moore

7 years ago
Posted in:Child Sexual Abuse, Rape / Sexual Assault, Sexual Offences, SOPO/SHPO breaches
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Author: Thomas Gradgrind
Tags: Aged 20-29, Aged<20, British Airways, Cardiff, Changed name to conceal record, Child victim, Convicted 1999, Cornwall, Cross dresser, Crystal Couture, Darren Sewell, Drag queen, Male victim, Offended 1999, Offended 2011, Pride, Wales

Darren Sewell (aka Crystal Couture/CC Quin/Darren Moore) a violent male drag queen, was convicted in 1999 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.

In 2011, at the age of 27, Sewell was found guilty of breaching that order by working as a gymnastics and dance tutor with children as young as nine in Cardiff. For breaching the order, Sewell avoided jail and was instead 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 2018, a popular Cardiff bar defended its decision to allow Darren Sewell as a convicted sex offender to perform as a drag act during Pride weekend in Cardiff. One person who was in the audience at the WOW bar told Wales Online that he complained to staff and that several people walked out in disgust at Sewell’s act, which included jokes about prolific child sex offender Jimmy Savile who is believed to have sexually abused over 500 children and vulnerable adults at hospitals, schools and at the BBC.

See also Robert Clothier, another violent male drag act convicted of serious child sex offences. He, too, made jokes about being a paedophile at a Pride event in Brighton. In common with Sewell, the violent male transvestite and Green Party activist David Challenor worked with a children’s gymnastics group, later being convicted of the rape and torture of a ten year old girl in 2018. Both David Challenor and Aimee Challenor were involved with Coventry Pride.

It later emerged that British Airways had also unknowingly hired the convicted sex offender Sewell to represent the national airline at the Pride Festival held in Brighton in 2018, as had a bar in Cornwall. Neither were aware of Sewell’s sex offender status as he had changed his name.

*Update January 2023*

Media reports indicate that Sewell, 39 – now known by his married name of Darren Moore – was found dead on a Cardiff street on Sunday 22 January 2023. South Wales Police said a local man, 50, had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and was subsequently bailed while inquiries continue – initial investigations have so far not revealed or confirmed any obvious cause of death. Detectives are keen to speak to anyone who saw Sewell/Moore after he left a city centre gay club in the early hours.

Imagine being Sewell’s victim and seeing the below BBC tweet and article describing Sewell only in glowing terms. In addition to the BBC, many other media outlets including ITV, Sky News and The Guardian published detailed articles – containing multiple tributes – that made no mention at all of Sewell’s conviction for repeatedly raping a child.

Darren Moore was described as a loving husband, son, brother, uncle and friend by his familyhttps://t.co/LqBzrJ5fXO
— BBC Wales News (@BBCWalesNews) January 24, 2023

*Update July 2023*

The BBC reported that the 50-year-old man arrested on suspicion of killing Sewell has been released without charge. The case has been handed to the coroner so an inquest can be held. In contrast with previous coverage, the article included the fact that Sewell had been convicted of sex offences against a child.

Photo via Wales Online