US sect girls were pregnant at 13, court hears

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

A social worker told the custody hearing, which will decide if 416 children from the group are taken into care, that at least five of them aged less than 18 were pregnant or have children.

Child welfare officials claim the youngsters were abused because the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade, polygamous, Mormon splinter group, encourages young girls to marry and have children.