More child brides testify in FLDS sex abuse trial
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PHOENIX (CN) — Two witnesses in a federal trial against men accused of aiding and participating in a religious child sex abuse ring confirmed Wednesday that one defendant watched sex acts with minors via video chat while he was completely naked.
LaDell Bistline Jr. and his brother Torrance Bistline were indicted in January on multiple counts of using interstate commerce to entice minors into sexual activity.
As followers of Samuel Bateman, the self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, federal prosecutors say the Bistline brothers participated in group sex activities with Bateman and his nearly two dozen wives, 10 of whom were children when they married and first had sex with Bateman.
Two witnesses in the trial’s sixth day, one of whom was only 14 when she married and was forced to sleep with Bateman, confirmed that they saw “everything” while LaDell Bistline Jr. was on a video call with them.
Bistline Jr. reportedly watched group sex acts over the video call. Witnesses in the first five days of trial said Bistline Jr. was completely naked while watching, but when pressed by Bistline Jr.’s defense attorney, they admitted they only saw from his waist up.
R.J., the then-14-year-old child bride who is now 18, said she was given by Bateman to Bistline Jr. in marriage, but never had sex with him, as Bateman took her back the same day.
The second witness, Svenda Barlow, who was married off to a friend of Bateman’s who gave many of his daughters to Bateman as child brides, said Bateman told her Bistline Jr. should have sex with R.J., though it never happened.
“Did LaDell Bistline ever do anything to stop the sexual activities he was present for?” federal prosecutor Dimitra Sampson asked Barlow.
“No,” Barlow replied.
LaDell Bistline Jr. is also accused of participating in at least one group sex act in person, at which he was completely naked while he watched Bateman and others have sex with children.
G.J., a now-14-year-old who was given to Bateman as a wife against her will at 10, said Bateman’s reputation in the FLDS community was “weird and creepy” before he began taking wives in 2019. She said Bateman first started having sex with her when she was 11, after spending some time demonstrating to her through pictures and his own acts with his older wives.
G.J. said Bistline Jr. regularly visited Bateman when he lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, with G.J. and his other wives, and Bistline Jr. always brought his two young daughters. Though at the time she didn’t know why his daughters were there, past testimony confirmed that Bistline Jr. gave them as child brides to Bateman, who had sex with them.
Each of the witnesses said they were told that Torrance Bistline had anal sex with a 14-year-old girl, though none of them witnessed it first-hand.
Torrance Bistline is also accused of destruction of evidence and tampering with an official proceeding for deleting messages between Bateman, himself and Bateman’s wives after Bateman was arrested in August 2022. The FBI raided Bateman’s two houses in Colorado City, Arizona, a month later, and Torrance Bistline tried to destroy a thumb drive that contained journal entries of all of Bateman’s sexual activities, prosecutors say.
Seven of Bateman’s adult wives have pleaded guilty to similar charges, and some have already been sentenced to prison. Bateman himself pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to kidnap and transport young girls across state lines and admitted to having sex with his underage brides.
Content retrieved from: https://www.courthousenews.com/more-child-brides-testify-in-flds-sex-abuse-trial/.
