The jury that convicted US polygamist leader Warren Jeffs on child sex assault charges is expected to decide his punishment this week.

POLYGAMIST sect leader Warren Jeffs is facing a possible life sentence after being convicted of child sexual assault.

THE first of a dozen polygamist sect members to be tried over charges including child sex offences faces jail after being found guilty.

An elder of a polygamist sect and two other church members surrendered to Texas authorities to face charges over the marriage of underage girls to older men.

Texas child welfare chiefs have asked a judge to put eight children from a polygamist sect’s ranch back into foster care because their mothers refuse to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages.

A Texas grand jury indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and four of his followers today, on charges of sexual assault of a child.

A JUDGE yesterday ordered the immediate return of more than 400 US children taken into care from a polygamist sect’s ranch.

Texas child welfare authorities appealed a stinging court ruling that said their seizure of more than 440 children from a polygamist sect’s ranch was unjustified, but they also agreed to reunite 12 children with their parents while the case moves on.

THE six-year-old son of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs did not suffer physical or sexual abuse while living with his mother at the group’s Texas ranch, a child welfare case worker testified yesterday.

The parents of the more than 400 children taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch are in a US court as part of an enormous custody case.

A mother taken from a polygamist sect in Texas and being held as a minor in state custody has given birth to a baby boy who was immediately taken into protective custody.

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

A Texas appeals court agreed today to hear arguments that hundreds of children the state took from a polygamist compound should be allowed to see their mothers while the massive custody case is resolved.

A Texas appeals court agreed today to hear arguments that hundreds of children the state took from a polygamist compound should be allowed to see their mothers while the massive custody case is resolved.

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.

FEMALE abuse victims as young as 13 may have given birth at the Texas headquarters of a religious sect, a court has heard.

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 in Texas today defended their handling of a raid on the giant headquarters of a polygamist sect.

AGENTS searching a 1,700-acre polygamist compound in west Texas found a bed in the soaring limestone temple and prosecutors believe it was used for male members to have sex with their underage wives after sect-recognised unions.

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.

Child welfare officials and police today removed a busload of children from a secretive Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

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.

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs headed back to Utah today to face felony sex charges involving the arranged marriages of underage girls and older men, authorities said.

After three months on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and two years on the run, the fugitive life of the US leader of a polygamist religious sect ended with a routine traffic stop.

A POLYGAMIST Mormon sect leader who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List has been arrested and faces sexual misconduct charges for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.