Pastor's 'child bride' gives evidence

A nine-year-old girl was considered too young to answer the office phone at evangelist Tony Alamo’s compound, but old enough for frequent sex, she has alleged at his US trial on child-sex charges.

The woman, now 18, testified that she dodged security cameras and guards to escape the compound in 2006. Her evidence left jurors red-eyed and shaking their heads yesterday.

She is set to return to the witness stand today to be cross-examined by Alamo’s defence team.

The teenage witness said Alamo “married” her when she was eight, and groped her after their wedding. She said he began having sex with her when she was nine. He also took explicit photographs of her that year with an instant camera and, upon looking at them, called her a “whore”, she claims.

She said she did not understand, but Alamo told her it was a good thing.

She said at one point she asked the minister why he had selected her.

“He said, ’Because you were cute,”’ she said on the witness stand. “It wasn’t God’s will that he married me. It’s just because he thought I was cute.”

Alamo, 74, is accused of taking young girls across state lines for sex. His lawyers say the girls were moved so they could do legitimate ministry work, and claim the US government has targeted him. He has pleaded not guilty.

Defence lawyers have largely left the sex and underage marriage claims unchallenged, though they have questioned witnesses’ memories and whether they had been coached by authorities.

The woman described two trips to her parents’ home in Oklahoma that ended when Alamo summoned her back to his Arkansas compound for sex. Those trips are mentioned in the indictment.

The woman told jurors she did some filing for the ministry early on, but that she was not allowed to answer the phone.

“I was too young,” she said.

Her evidence came after another former underage bride said she “married” Alamo at 14 through hurried whispers during visiting hours at a prison where he was serving time for tax evasion. Alamo’s other wives served as lookouts.

“We would lean in really close to each other so the camera wouldn’t see,” she said, crying.

A Florida woman who testified against Alamo on Wednesday said she was “married” to him at 15 and raised objections to Alamo taking an eight-year-old as a bride. A woman from Texas told jurors the minister made light of taking a young girl on the road as a wife and sex partner.

“It was flaunting that he could get away with this,” she said.

If convicted, Alamo faces 10 years in prison and a fine on each of the 10 counts against him.