Rapist Jon Seccull who pimped out wife sent back to prison

A Ballarat mum who was raped and pimped out by her ex-husband has delivered a powerful message after her abuser was thrown back in jail.

Jon Seccull has been jailed for raping and abusing his wife, Michelle Skewes.

A Ballarat mother who was raped and pimped out by her cruel ex-husband has delivered a powerful message to domestic violence survivors after her abuser was thrown back in jail and placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Jon Seccull, 46, a former White Ribbon ambassador, was sentenced to nine years and nine months behind bars at the end of his County Court retrial on Wednesday, after a jury found him guilty of raping his former wife Michelle Skewes multiple times between February 2014 and September 2015.

In addition to being jailed, Seccull’s name will be on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life after a jury found him guilty of three charges of rape and one charge of threatening to inflict serious violence.

Ms Skewes – who granted the Herald Sun permission to publish her name and picture – told this masthead that it was a “victory beyond measure” that Seccull was held to account.

“The sentence was better than I was anticipating and the fact he’s on the sex offenders register for life is absolutely huge,” she said.

Michelle and Jon on their wedding day. Credit: Noel Hutchins.

The court heard Seccull felt no remorse for his actions.

“Abusers and people like him are the ones that continue to do this because they don’t see anything wrong with what they’ve done. They truly believe that what they’re doing is something that the (victim) deserves.

“When you are in those relationships, those perpetrators do everything they can to destroy your relationship with friends, destroy your relationship with your work, destroy your family and you can end up so isolated, which just gives them more control”.

Since separating from Seccull – a former corrections officer and White Ribbon ambassador – Ms Skewes said she has connected with other domestic violence survivors who suffered eerily similar abuse.

“After I left Jon I connected with other domestic violence survivors and they basically parroted what Jon used to say to me through their own experiences,” she said.

“The book by Jess Hill ‘See what you made me do’ gives an incredible insight into how these abusive perpetrators work and how they are so similar to each other.

“(Victims) deserve to be treated with respect and they do not have to stay in a relationship that does not give that to them.”

Seccull was a former White Ribbon ambassador.

Seccull, from Wallace in the state’s west, appeared at his County Court retrial via video link dressed in prison greens.

He showed no emotion during the sentence, looking down and taking notes as Judge Sarah Dawes gave her remarks.

The sentence comes two years after Seccull launched an appeal against his 2021 conviction, claiming he did not receive a fair trial under Judge Frank Gucciardo when he was jailed for 10.5 years.

Court of Appeal judges agreed and granted a retrial.

In November 2023 a new jury found him guilty of three charges of rape and a single charge of threatening to inflict serious violence between February 2014 and September 2015.

Seccull was acquitted of eight other charges.

The court also heard he and Ms Skewes would arrange for her to meet other men for sex, which was live streamed for Seccull to watch.

Judge Dawes described Seccull’s prospects of rehabilitation as “reasonable at best” but that he had shown “no remorse” for his actions, having denied any wrongdoing.

“I am unable to conclude that you have shown any remorse whatsoever,” Judge Dawes said.

On the charge of threatening to inflict serious violence the court heard Seccull told Ms Skewes that he would put her in the ICU and that he’d kill himself in the driveway so that their children would find them dead.

Ms Skewes left Seccull in 2016 and the pair divorced in 2019.