Samuel Bateman, Legal, Australia, Coercive Control, Jim Jones
Salt Lake Tribune: Samuel Bateman gets 50 years in prison after admitting he sexually abused his child 'wives' in FLDS offshoot
The 48-year-old man rose to power among several polygamous families in 2019 after claiming that he was a new prophet.
She was 14 years old in 2021 when Samuel Bateman decided he wanted her as a wife — and the self-proclaimed prophet took her as one of 20 women and girls he "spiritually married."
Bateman was leading a sect that broke off from the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Being a Bateman "wife," the girl said in a victim impact statement, harmed every part of her life.
He stripped her of her personality, her dreams and her ambitions, she wrote. She lost her chance for an education and self-confidence. He sexually abused her and he harmed her family relationships.
This girl and the nine other children that Bateman married will "live with the memories and the trauma" for the rest of their lives, federal prosecutors argued in court papers prior to Bateman's Monday sentencing in an Arizona courtroom. For that, the government attorneys urged, Bateman deserved to spend 50 years in federal prison — essentially a life sentence for the 48-year-old."
Sydney Morning Herald: Call to outlaw 'coercive' cults, stop financial secrecy for extreme churches
"A widening of coercive control laws to cover groups such as cults and changes to the tax breaks afforded to religious organisations are among reforms proposed after the exposure of extreme teachings at a secretive Australian church.
Former members of the hardline Geelong Revival Centre want criminal coercive control laws, which predominantly target domestic violence, expanded to include extreme religious sects and high-demand groups."
CNN: It was a cult compound where more than 900 people died. Now it might become a tourist attraction
"Guyana is revisiting a dark history nearly half a century after U.S. Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in the rural interior of the South American country.
It was the largest suicide-murder in recent history, and a government-backed tour operator wants to open the former commune now shrouded by lush vegetation to visitors, a proposal that is reopening old wounds, with critics saying it would disrespect victims and dig up a sordid past.
Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in California and was moved into the Peoples Temple commune at age 14, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the U.S. that she has mixed feelings about the tour.
She was in Guyana's capital the day Jones ordered hundreds of his followers to drink a poisoned grape-flavored drink that was given to children first. Her two sisters and two nephews were among the victims.
"I just missed dying by one day," she recalled.
Vilchez, 67, said Guyana has every right to profit from any plans related to Jonestown.
"Then on the other hand, I just feel like any situation where people were manipulated into their deaths should be treated with respect," she said.
Vilchez added that she hopes the tour operator would provide context and explain why so many people went to Guyana trusting they would find a better life."
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