Polygamist leader with 20 'wives' faces sentencing for criminal sex acts with children

Associated Press Phoenix: A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls faces decades in prison at his sentencing on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults. Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs, has pleaded guilty to a yearslong scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later to kidnap some of them from protective custody. His plea agreement called for 20 to 50 years in prison, though each conviction carries a possible life sentence. But first, a federal judge will hear from a doctor who evaluated Bateman's competency.

The question could determine whether the sentencing goes forward or Bateman is remanded to state custody for psychiatric treatment until he's deemed mentally fit to assist in his defence, his attorney Brian Russo said. 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.

The alleged practice of sect members sexually abusing girls who they claim as spiritual “wives” has long plagued the FLDS. Jeffs was convicted of state charges in Texas in 2011 involving sexual assaults of his underage followers. Bateman was one of Jeffs' trusted followers and declared himself, like Jeffs, to be a “prophet” of the FLDS.