Sect leader jailed for forced marriage of 14-year-old
 
From correspondents in St George, Utah
Melbourne Herald Sun - Australia
 
US polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison today for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her cousin.

Jeffs, the self-proclaimed "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), spent 15 months on the run and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list before his arrest in August 2006.

He was convicted in September.

A Utah court said Jeffs' sentence was subject to review by the state board of pardons, which will ultimately determine how much time he serves.

Looking gaunt, Jeffs showed no emotion when the sentence was read and he declined to address the Utah court.

But his victim, who is now 21, was in court and directly spoke to the judge before sentencing.

"Jeffs and his influence over me, as a 14-year-old girl, affected me and my family in so many ways," said Elissa Wall.

She said she trusted the court would give him "the sentence that he deserves and that some good would come from this".

Jeffs forced her to marry her 19-year-old cousin despite her objections.

Revered as infallible by his followers and reviled as power-crazed and delusional by others, Jeffs, 51, led some 7500 FLDS members in the red-rock borderlands of Utah and neighbouring Arizona.

Women members of the church wear long, pioneer-style dresses, have their hair in long braided plaits and are brought up to be submissive to their husbands.

Church members are generally suspicious of outsiders.

The trial of the sect leader riveted Utah, the western state with a majority Mormon population, many of whom consider polygamy an outdated embarrassment to their faith.

The practice of taking multiple wives was an early tenet of the Mormon faith, although it was banned in 1890 when Utah sought to become a state.

The FLDS - which has no ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are called Mormons - is the largest group still practising polygamy in the state.

Jeffs faces similar charges in Arizona.
 
news.com.au
Originally published November 21, 2007
 
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