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| PEDOPHILE |
The 55-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had 78 wives, 24 of whom were underage and performed a further 67 "spiritual marriages" involving young girls, prosecutors said.
He was found guilty of sexually abusing two girls aged just 12 and 15, by the jury who took just three hours to convict him.
Many of them had been reduced to tears during the trial when they were played a sickening "sex tape" on which Jeffs could be heard panting and breathing heavily.
He told her: "You have to know how to be sexually excited and to help each other and you have to be ready for the time I need your comfort."
The 10,000 strong offshoot of the Mormon church could also be heard saying: "Just don't think about the pain, you're going to heaven. The world's view of sexual relations is selfish, the celestial view is not."
A forensic analyst also testified that Jeffs was an almost certain DNA match to the child of a 15-year-old mother.
Cops caused a sensation when they raided the groups remote West Texas ranch in April 2008 after a call to the abuse hotline which was later found to be false.
They found women dressed in 19th century frontier-style dresses and hairdos and more than 400 children, who they placed in protective custody until a court ruled that they should be returned to their families.
Authorities did however bring charges against several men from the group with Jeffs being by far the most high profile.
Throughout the trial Jeffs, who represented himself during the trial after sacking his lawyer, claimed he was the victim of religious persecution.
He broke his courtroom silence with an objection marked by a nearly hour long speech defending polygamy, and twice threatened the judge and the court with warnings of punishment from God. Eleven other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy. All seven of those who have been prosecuted were convicted, receiving prison sentences of between six and 75 years.
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