5 things to know about the latest polygamy abuse case
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The child sex abuse case against Short Creek polygamous sect leader Samuel Bateman, 48, took several unusual turns before it ended Monday in a 50-year prison sentence.
Here are five things to know about the investigation.
1. Bateman broke away from the FLDS sect due to a ban on sex.
Bateman had been a devout follower of now-imprisoned Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based around the Utah-Arizona border, until the years following Jeffs’ 2006 arrest.
The faith’s prophet couldn’t perform new marriages from prison, and other FLDS church leaders banned married couples from having sex.
Bateman eventually claimed prophetic authority to allow women to pray for their own marriage-related revelations, without Jeffs’ OK, causing Bateman and his followers to become estranged from the FLDS.
Bateman’s network of followers, who called themselves “Samuelites,” spanned Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska.
2. Bateman’s victims included children as young as 9.
Bateman claimed 20 spiritual “wives,” 10 of whom were underage. Some were exceptionally young, even among child brides whose abuse in Utah’s polygamous communities has led to criminal convictions.
Content retrieved from: https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2024/12/10/samuel-bateman-polygamy-flds-child-abuse-brides-wives.
