U.S. police have taken temporary custody of 401 children from a massive polygamist compound in Schleicher County, Texas, in an investigation of possible abuse, a child welfare group said Monday.
"This is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved with in the state of Texas," Marleigh Meisner, spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said in a statement.
Each of the children will be appointed a guardian ad litem and an attorney ad litem to represent their interests, she said.
In addition, 133 women from the compound have voluntarily joined the children.
An unknown number of men remain in the compound, but they are not free to leave.
Police has not yet found the 16-year-old girl whose abuse complaint triggered the massive raid.
The girl called authorities a week ago to seek help, saying she was 16 and had a baby by an older husband.
Police raided the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect of the Mormon church, last Thursday.
The raid came more than four years after members of the sect, long based on the Arizona-Utah border, arrived in Texas.
While mainstream Mormons disavowed polygamy more than a century ago, the sect, led by jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, believes in plural, arranged marriages that often involve teenage girls and older men.
In September, Jeffs was convicted in Utah of being an accomplice in the rape of a 14-year-old girl.
Since arriving, the polygamists have erected more than 35 buildings and a massive temple in the compound, which is believed to be home to several hundred people.
Source:Xinhua
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