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US polygamist leader guilty of child sex assault
Source: Agencies |
August 5, 2011, Friday
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US polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who heads a breakaway Mormon sect, was found guilty yesterday of child sexual assault for his "spiritual marriages" to two underage girls.
A Texas jury convicted the 55-year-old Jeffs of child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault over his relationships with the girls, ages 12 and 14, at his sect's Texas ranch. He faces up to 119 years in prison.
Jeffs is considered the spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and has argued in outbursts that the Texas court was trampling on his religious rights by trying the case.
The polygamist sect, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America, has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church and is accused of promoting marriages between older men and girls.
"This is taking down the head of the snake," former sect member Flora Jessop said of the verdict, handed down after about three hours of deliberations.
A Texas jury convicted the 55-year-old Jeffs of child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault over his relationships with the girls, ages 12 and 14, at his sect's Texas ranch. He faces up to 119 years in prison.
Jeffs is considered the spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and has argued in outbursts that the Texas court was trampling on his religious rights by trying the case.
The polygamist sect, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America, has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church and is accused of promoting marriages between older men and girls.
"This is taking down the head of the snake," former sect member Flora Jessop said of the verdict, handed down after about three hours of deliberations.
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