Hundreds Found In Texas Sect Compound
133 women and 401 allegedly abused children have been taken in to state custody after officials recieved a call from a distressed 16 year old girl in Eldorado County, Texas (160 miles (260km) north-west of the Texan town of San Antonio). The children were found in a 1700 acre compound belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints during a raid which had started on Saturday. Children as young as 6 month have been removed from the compound.
The 16 year old girl called in saying that she had been abused and forced to marry a 50 year old man. The girl also said that in the compound-- which included medical facility, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, numerous large housing units and a white limestone temple-- some females as young as 14 and 15 were already mothers. The girl has not yet been identified.
The women leaving the compound were wearing home sewn, ankle length dresses and were said to have been kept in isolation from the outside world.
A spokesperson affiliated with the Department of Public Safety has said that so far, one person has been arrested for "interfering with the duties of a public servant". She also told reporters that "An unknown number of men remain on the compound and are not free to leave."
The children will be assigned attorneys and the a hearing will be held about this case next week. Meanwhile the children will be staying in temporary shelters, which officials say are filling up fast.
Police had been monitoring the compound ever since it was bought by the sect one year ago.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamic founded by Warren Jeffs-a polygamist who was jailed last year for the rape and forced marriage of a 14 year old girl, is a breakaway branch of the Mormon Church, which abandoned the practice of polygamy in 1890. The church believes that men need a minimum of three wives in order to ascend to heaven.
Sources
- CTV.ca News Staff "More than 400 children removed from compound". CTV.ca, April 7, 2008
- "Hundreds leave Texan sect ranch". BBC NEWS, April 8, 2008
- "Texas raids: 534 children, women taken from polygamy sect". ABC NEWS, April 7, 2008
- "Texas takes legal custody of 401 sect children". CNN, April 7, 2008
- "400+ children removed from polygamist compound". Xinhua, April 7, 2008
- Gregg Watson "Children from polygamist compound may come to Austin". CBS 42, April 7, 2008
- Ralph blumenthal "Additional Children Removed at Polygamist Ranch in Texas". New York Times, April 6, 2008
- http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Hundreds_Found_In_Texas_Sect_Compound
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