Sect leader gets 135 years for child abuse

The leader of a quasi-religious sect was sentenced in the US today to 135 years in prison for molesting boys and girls at the group’s ancient Egyptian-style compound.

Malachi York, the 58-year-old “Master Teacher” of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, will also have to forfeit the 476-acre compound, adorned with pyramids and a sphinx.

He was convicted in January of 11 counts of child molestation and racketeering. Prosecutors in Macon, Georgia said he recruited older girls to groom younger girls for sex with him, and used the cult for his financial gain.

The sect was founded as a Muslim commune in New York and moved in 1993 to the compound, where York set himself up as a messiah figure.

His lawyer argued that the US government was out to get the mostly black sect because its beliefs were outside the mainstream.