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	Custody Battles Begin over 463 Children from Polygamist Sect By Michelle Roberts The Herald (United Kingdom) May 19, 2008 http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.2282361.0.Custody_battles_begin_over_463_children_from_polygamist_sect.php A six-year-old son of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs did not suffer physical or sexual abuse while living with his mother at the group's Texas ranch, a child welfare case worker testified yesterday. Child Protective Services case worker Joni Manske testified during one of several hearings in which more than 400 individual cases are being considered. The massive custody cases got under way yesterday in all five Tom Green County courtrooms, with parents learning what they must do to regain custody of the children. The hearings are expected to last three weeks. Texas authorities have 463 children in foster care after claims that members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were forcing underage girls into marriage and sex. Members of the renegade Mormon sect have denied any abuse. The boy is one of 10 in state custody believed to be the children of Jeffs, the sect's jailed leader and prophet. Jeffs was convicted in Utah of being an accomplice to rape in the marriage of a 14-year-old to a 19-year-old. The children were removed from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado during an April 3 raid.
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