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Raymond Jessop Sentenced to 10 Years for FLDS Child Sex Abuse

by Scott Wu | November 10, 2009 at 04:53 pm

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Raymond Jessop has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and $8000 in fine. Raymond Merril Jessop is the first to be tried, among the 12 members of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Jessop was found guilty for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 2004.

Raymond Jessop, 38, will remain in the Texas county jail before transferred to San Angelo for processing and assignment to a Texas jail. He will serve 5 years before eligible for parole.

Prosecutors used the victim's photo album, documents seized from the sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch and DNA tests to prove Jessop had taken the woman, then 15-year-old, as a spiritual wife in August 2004. She conceived a child in November and gave birth to a daughter on Aug. 19, 2005 after an arduous three-day labor.

The girl was underaged and was not legally married to Jessop. She was too young to be Jessop's common-law wife. In Texas, this is a case of statutory rape, said John Sampson, a family law expert of the University of Texas at Austin.

In Texas, an underage person is not legally able to consent to sex — unless within the confines of a legal marriage.

Sampson, called by prosecutors as an expert witness, told jurors last week that Jessop was also already legally married to another woman in 1994.

The other 11 FLDS men charged might consider plea deals, said Arnold Loewy, professor and crimal law expert of Texas Tech University.

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jazzyzazzy

at 18:06 on November 10th, 2009

good another perv locked up.

marianmo

at 19:44 on November 10th, 2009

i hope he will be on a sex offenders registry for the rest of his life

Gary Jessop (not verified)

at 23:32 on November 10th, 2009

oh good that sex pervert is going to prison, i hope he goes into the general pop in prison so maybe he will get his ass beet. and if he ever gets out of prison alive he shuld halve to register as a sex pervert.