Polygamist convicted of sex with minor

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The Texas attorney general says sentencing is expected Monday for a member of a polygamist sect convicted of sexually assaulting a minor.

Spokesman Jerry Strickland said Raymond Jessop faces as long as 20 years in prison for having sex with an underage girl with whom he had entered into a "spiritual" marriage, CNN reports.

Jessop was a member of the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas where child welfare workers seized more than 400 children in April 2008.

The children were returned to the ranch after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had no right to remove them and lacked evidence to show they were in danger of abuse.

Jessop was a member of a fundamentalist sect that separated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints. The sect openly practices polygamy in Texas, Utah and Arizona.