Topeka woman Tiffany Seel sentenced to life for sexual abuse of girl

A Topeka woman was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years after admitting to encouraging, facilitating and taking part in the repeated sexual abuse of a female relative over seven years.

Tiffany Seel pleaded guilty April 13 to aggravated indecent liberties by an offender older than 18 when the victim is younger than 14, aggravated indecent liberties with a child 14-15, criminal sodomy with a child and sexual exploitation of a child.

“I’m sorry for everything that went wrong,” Seel, sobbing, told Judge David Debenham.

She was sentenced to life in prison on the first charge, 61 months in prison on the second charge, 61 months in prison on the third charge and 34 months in prison on the fourth charge. The sentences will run concurrently.

“You didn’t accept responsibility for your actions in this case,” Debenham told Seel. “You didn’t report, initially, everything you had done.”

Seel and her husband, Kenneth Seel, were charged with sexually assaulting the girl for a seven-year period. The abuse ended last September when Tiffany Seel called the police to report a domestic disturbance.

During Friday’s sentencing, 42 minutes of Tiffany Seel’s interrogation by Detective Emily Adams of the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office was played in the courtroom. During the video, Seel described the years of sexual abuse, which she sometimes encouraged as a punishment.

Kenneth Seel also testified, casually describing for the court how he first had sex with the girl after she requested it. Tiffany Seel walked in and stopped that first encounter, her husband said, but agreed a few weeks later to allow her husband to have sex with the girl if he used it as a punishment.

“I would not hurt her,” Kenneth Seel testified. “I did have sex, but I would not hurt her.”

Kenneth Seel said his wife participated in the molestation on at least five occasions. She also watched it, bought two boxes of condoms for her husband to use and agreed that if Kenneth Seel purchased a house, he could have sex with the relative as often as he liked, according to Kenneth Seel.

Kenneth Seel defended his actions by saying the girl wanted to have sex with him. If she ever suggested she wanted the relationship to end, he would have stopped, Seel said.

“From the get-go I knew it was illegal,” he said. “I just didn’t know it was this illegal.”

Over time, Kenneth Seel came to believe he was in love with the relative and desired a long-term relationship with her. Spurred by jealousy, Tiffany Seel threatened to turn her husband into the police if he attempted to divorce her. On Sept. 2, 2015, she did exactly that.

“The defendant is just as culpable as Mr. Seel is in these crimes,” said Brett Watson, assistant district attorney.

“This went on for seven years. There were multiple times when this happened and multiple times when the defendant could have stopped it,” he added.

Seel kept her head on the desk of a table for most of the hearing, including all of her husband’s testimony. She silently sobbed throughout the hearing.

Seel’s attorneys urged the judge to sentence her to 122 months, a departure from the minimum sentence under the state’s Jessica Law of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. Seel had been sexually assaulted as a child, attorney Heather Nelson told Debenham, and female sex offenders have lower rates of recidivism.

In a letter to the judge read aloud by Nelson, Seel described her severe, untreated depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome and alcohol abuse. Her husband was a manipulative liar, she said. Seel described her mother’s alcoholism, her father’s early death and the rape she suffered at the hands of her mother’s boyfriends.

“I don’t think that excuses her role and responsibility” in the case, Debenham said.

Before the sentencing, the court heard brief remarks by the victim, whose name is being withheld by the Topeka Capital-Journal due to her age. The victim said between sobs that she has graduated from high school and plans to study engineering.