More than half the teenage girls taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas have children or are pregnant, state authorities said today.

More than 400 children taken from a religious sect's headquarters will undergo DNA testing this week to discover who their parents are and if any sexual abuse took place.

A child welfare worker told a court early today that numerous women at a polygamous church ranch in West Texas may have had children when they were as young as 13.

Police wore body armour, sported automatic weapons and were backed by an armoured personnel carrier for a raid on a West Texas polygamist retreat, photos and video show.

Police searching a 1,700-acre religious compound in Texas found a bed in a limestone temple thought to be used by male members to have sex with their underage wives.

More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.

An American polygamous-sect leader was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for his role in the arranged marriage of teenage cousins.

The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group has been convicted in the US of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

A US woman sobbed on the witness stand as she described the terror and despair she felt on the eve of her wedding in a religious sect when she was just 14-years-old.

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs made his first appearance in a Utah courtroom today as a judge set a November 21 hearing to determine if there is probable cause to send him to trial on charges of arranging an underage marriage.

BREAKAWAY Mormon leader Warren Jeffs has been added to the FBI’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives,” a move that caps law enforcement’s dramatic change of approach toward the polygamous group in recent years.