SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Inquisitr
December 28, 2017
A lawsuit filed last week accuses multiple FLDS Church leaders, including Warren Jeffs, of religious-based sex abuse of children as young as 8-years-old.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday against the leadership of the Fundamentalist LDS (FLDS) Church, an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon (LDS) Church, an unnamed 21-year-old woman identified publicly only as “R.H.” accused high-ranking FLDS leaders of ritualistic sexual abuse against girls as young as 8-years-old. Named as defendants in the lawsuit are FLDS Church president (and previous FBI “10 Most Wanted” fugitive) Warren Jeffs, brothers Lyle and Seth Jeffs, and previous FLDS Church leader Wendall Nielsen. All are accused of child sex abuse.
As Fox 13 Now reports, R.H. is targeting the relatively deep pockets of both the FLDS Church and its court-managed United Effort Plan Trust, which manages the controversial church’s real estate holdings. According to R.H., her reasons for filing the lawsuit are many and varied, not the least of which a concern that “certain parties” within the FLDS Church be held responsible for what she calls “religious-based systemic sexual abuse of young children.” Via a statement released by her legal team, R.H. claims that she believes that the ritualistic sexual abuse that she and others allegedly endured is still ongoing within the FLDS community, despite the fact that church leader and self-proclaimed “prophet” Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas for similar crimes against children.
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