A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison for coercing girls as young as nine years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults, and for scheming to kidnap them from protective custody.
Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs, had pleaded guilty to a years-long scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later to kidnap some of them from protective custody.
Under the agreement, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for sexual activity, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life imprisonment.
On Monday, He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to be served concurrently.
The rest of the charges were dismissed as part of the agreement.
Authorities say that Bateman, 48, tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints based in the neighbouring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.
The fundamentalist group, also known as FLDS, split from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after Mormons officially abandoned polygamy in 1890.
US District Court Judge Susan Brnovich sentenced Bateman after hearing statements in court by three teenage girls about the trauma they still struggle to overcome.
Although they gave their names in court, the Associated Press does not name victims of sexual crime, and some appeared to still be minors.
“You should not have the opportunity to be free and never have the opportunity to be around young women, ” Judge Brnovich told Bateman, noting that for a man of his age the 50-year sentence was effectively a life sentence.
“You took them from their homes, from their families and made them into sex slaves,” the judge said. “You stripped them of their innocence and childhood.”
Seven of Bateman’s adult “wives” have been convicted of crimes related to coercing children into sexual activity or impeding the investigation into Bateman.
None of the women or girls were legally married to Bateman.
