Warren Jeffs gets life in prison

Tue Aug 9, 2011

BBC News

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two underage followers he took as brides.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader was handed the maximum sentence possible.

Last Thursday, the 55-year-old was found guilty of forcing two girls into "spiritual marriages" and fathering a child with one of them.

The charges followed a raid on a remote west Texas ranch in 2008.

Jeffs stood quietly in a Texas court on Tuesday as the jury's decision, which only took 30 minutes, was read.