A cult leader, Samuel Rappylee Bateman, in Arizona has been accused of ‘marrying’ up to 20 women and girls as young as nine, including his own daughter, according to FBI documents

A cult leader in Arizona has been accused of ‘marrying’ up to 20 women and girls as young as nine, including his own daughter, according to FBI documents

Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, was the leader of a small group of polygamist Mormons known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS).

In 2019, Bateman allegedly ‘began to proclaim he was a prophet’ and declared his purpose was to marry his own daughter, according to an FBI affidavit seen by the Salt Lake Tribune. In one shocking detail that was listed in the document, Bateman allegedly ordered three male followers to have sex with his daughters, one of whom was just 12, while he watched.