Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has today been sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two under-age followers he took as brides in what his church deemed "spiritual marriages".

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.

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

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.

Lawyers for Texas child welfare chiefs have begun presenting evidence at a hearing on whether a girl allegedly given in marriage at 12 to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs should be placed back in foster care.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Up to 183 girls and women have been removed from a Mormon cult in the US.

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

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.

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.

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.