Self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs has been found guilty of being an accomplice to rape and for forcing a young girl to marry her cousin. Photo / Reuters
UTAH - US polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been convicted of being an accomplice to rape for arranging a marriage between an unwilling 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old first cousin.
Jeffs faces five years to life in prison for each of the two felony charges of accomplice
to rape. No date was set for sentencing.
The self-described "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints showed no expression as the verdict was read to a court packed with his supporters.
He arranged and presided over the 2001 marriage, in which the girl was an unwilling partner, that forced sex would follow.
The woman, now 21, testified that Jeffs told her it was her religious duty to give herself to her husband, and instructed her to repent and submit to his will.
In emotional testimony during the trial, the woman said she begged Jeffs not to marry her to her cousin, whom she did not like. She said she wanted to die after her husband first forced her into sex.
Attorneys for Jeffs argued that he could not have known that rape would be committed behind closed bedroom doors, and that the accuser was too vague when she told Jeffs about her problems with the relationship.
Under Utah law, a person 14 or older can consent to sexual intercourse.
- REUTERS
