Standing neatly side by side, 50 young girls pose as if for a school yearbook, their smiles every bit as uniform as their pastel outfits and tightly quaffed hairdos. Their innocent enthusiasm is focused on one goal alone - worshiping the man framed behind them, who has cruelly bred them for manipulation. As a Texas jury sentenced Jeffs to life plus 20 years in prison for his crimes as their church leader, extraordinary pictures have emerged of the wives of the notorious polygamist, offering insight into the twisted world of subjugation with which he surrounded himself.
Jeffs, the 55-year-old self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was last week convicted of two counts of sexually assaulting a child - one 12 and one 14-year-old.
Today, after brief deliberations, the jury at court in Texas sentenced him to the maximum possible time behind bars for his crimes.
Jeffs's wives were both the victims of his abuse and the accomplices, subjected to a cruel world of worship and sexual abuse, while also proving their worth to their leader by holding down their peers while they were assaulted.
Manipulated: This girl was 15 when she had a baby with warren Jeffs
Of his 78 wives, 29 are said to have been former stepmothers - having previously serviced Rulon Jeffs, Warren Jeffs's father and predecessor as the church's ecclesiastical leader.
56 of the girls were each others sisters and 24 were under the age of 17.
Over the course of the trial, the jury in Texas has heard a series of depraved insights into the world of the dictatorial leader of a polygamist sect, which has more than 10,000 members worldwide.
One of Jeffs's nephews testified that he was raped by the supposed prophet when he was just five-years-old. He said Jeffs instructed him to keep the assault secret because it is 'between you, me and god'.
A niece also testified about an incident which occurred when she was aged seven and other witnesses spoke out, revealing a world of manipulation and control, where Jeffs banned followers from 'parades, dances, music, and even the color red'.
Perhaps most shocking of all has been the revelation that some of the young wives assisted the pedophile with his sexual assaults.
In a confused world where they were brainwashed to service the demands of their leader, however abusive, three of Jeffs’s wives were said in court to have held down the 12-year-old victim while Jeffs raped her.
One of the girls bound the child's arms and legs to stop her moving, tapes seized from the compound where they lived in Eldorado, Texas, revealed.
It is unclear whether the women will be prosecuted for their roles in the abuse. Many argue their submission was borne out of a deeply engrained fear of Jeffs, who took over the community in 1998 from his father, who had raised him to believe the women were rightfully his to abuse as a birthright.
As sect leader, Jeffs 'documented everything he did, keeping track of every marriage he performed, every young woman he wed, even recording his intimate moments.'
During a 2008 raid, these recordings, which helped secure his conviction, were seized by authorities. The explicit tapes, when played in court, caused shocked jurors to break down in tears.
One was 'a 20 minute audiotape that began and ended with a man saying a prayer' before sexually assaulting the 12-year-old in front of three other of his wives, according to prosecutors.
The audiotape from 2004 was played in court before another, made within hours of the first, in which prosecutors say Jeffs can be heard having sex with all the girls at the same time.
In one tape, he is heard telling the girls they 'need to be excited'. Jurors also heard him tell the girls that if they refused to please him in what he dubbed the 'heavenly sessions', they would be 'rejected by God'.
In a cruel irony, the girls were encouraged by Jeffs by being told their compliance would help atone for the sins of their community.
Other shocking photographs have also emerged, including ones showing Jeffs holding and passionately kissing an underage female church member and one revealing a bed where ritual sex sessions were carried out in front of a church audience.
State witness Rebecca Musser - a former FLDS member who was married as a young girl to Jeffs' father - told the court she had received training about how beds in the temple were to be used in sexual rituals before it was built.
Miss Musser said beds inside the temple were arranged so that witnesses could see the abuse and that a special seat was placed for someone to record the sexual acts.
Jurors weep as court hears twisted tape of sexual instructions Warren Jeffs gave child brides threatening that God would 'reject them' before having sex by baptism pool
- Court hears he was involved in 550 bigamous marriages including 67 that involved under-age girls
- Horrific tape of Jeffs instructing child brides how to please him sexually played
- Tells them God will reject them if they refuse to have sex with them
- Comes after Jeffs' nephew told jurors he was abused by his uncle aged five
- Shocking pictures also showed Jeffs kissing two child brides
- Jeffs walked out of court in protest demanding to be set free after sentencing
- Psychologist tells court cult leader groomed children like a 'pedophile'
