Standing neatly side by side, 50 young girls pose as if for a school yearbook, their smiles every bit as uniform as their pastel outfits and tightly coiffed hairdos.
Their innocent enthusiasm is focussed on one goal alone - worshipping the man framed behind them, who has cruelly bred them for manipulation.
As a Texas jury sentenced Warren Jeffs to life plus 20 years in prison for his crimes as their church leader, extraordinary pictures have emerged of the wives of the notorious polygamist, offering insight into the twisted world of subjugation with which he surrounded himself.
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Family portrait: The picture shows dozens of Warren Jeffs's brides, lined up together as if they are posing for a school photograph
Jeffs, the 55-year-old self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was last week convicted of two counts of sexually assaulting a child - one 12 and one 14-year-old.
Today, after less than half an hour of deliberations, the jury at court in Texas sentenced him to the maximum possible time behind bars for his crimes.
Jeffs was given life behind bars for the first count of aggravated sexual assault and an extra 20 years, to be served consecutively, for the second count of sexual assault - the maximum allowed for each count. He was also handed a $10,000 fine.
Manipulated: This girl was 15 when she had a baby with warren Jeffs
Jeffs, who defended himself for most of the trial, had walked out on the sentencing portion of the case in protest after reading out a statement threatening a 'whirlwind of judgement' from god if his 'humble servant' was not released from custody.
DNA evidence presented during the trial proved Jeffs had fathered a child with a 15-year-old child bride.
Graphic audio recordings were played on which he was said to be heard sexually assaulting a 12-year-old and instructing other minors on how to please him sexually.
By submitting to his sexual needs in sessions Jeffs branded 'heavenly' or 'celestial', the girls were told they were thereby pleasing god and helping to atone for the sins of their community.
'If the world knew what I was doing, they would hang me from the highest tree,' Jeffs wrote in a chilling journal entry from 2005 - one of thousands of pages of notes seized by authorities.
During the trial Jeffs called just one witness - an elder from the church who read from scripture.
Some other church members testified against their former leader. In order to maintain power, he was said to have excommunicated 60 members who he worried threatened his leadership, 'reassigning' wives and children from 300 families.
'Mr. Jeffs had his big house, where he chose to warehouse hundreds of girls and women for his sexual gratification. The state of Texas has a big house too, and that is where Warren Jeffs should spend the rest of his days,' Assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols told the jury during closing arguments.
'Warren Jeffs made himself into something that harms each and every person he touches,' he added.
Defence attorneys said after the sentencing that they would not be handling Jeffs's appeal, but that there were legitimate grounds for one, stating that evidence in the case had been gathered during a 2008 raid based on a false abuse report.
Jeffs's conviction stems from a highly publicised raid on the sect's Yearning For Zion compound in Eldorado, Texas, in which authorities took temporary custody of some 400 children.
They later returned them to their families after an investigation and DNA tests.
Some legal experts have said that because the raid was triggered by a false report, the evidence gathered there could be disallowed.
Head bowed and feet chained: Warren Jeffs arrives at court this week as the jury hear more and more of his crimes
But Judge Barbara Walther, who has presided over the case in her San Angelo courtroom since the raid, allowed evidence prosecutors said proved Jeffs abused his position in power to have sex with girls as young as 12.
'If the world knew what I was doing, they would hang me from the highest tree'
Warren Jeffs journal entry, 2005
Jeffs's wives were both the victims of his abuse and the accomplices, subjected to a cruel world of worship and sexual abuse, while also proving their worth to their leader by holding down their peers while they were assaulted.
He was on the FBI's Most Wanted list but had evaded arrest for years before his capture in 2006, surrounding himself with doting believers and underage wives who he bred to service his sexual desires.
Of his 78 wives, 29 are said to have been former stepmothers - having previously serviced Rulon Jeffs, Warren Jeffs's father and predecessor as the church's ecclesiastical leader.
56 of the girls were each other's sisters and 24 were under the age of 17.
Under arrest: Warren Jeffs is taken into custody
Defiant: Jeffs maintains he is a prophet
Fear: Jeffs was caught in 2006
Where it took place: The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, left, and one of the rooms inside the main temple, right, which contained a bed
Over the course of the trial, the jury in Texas has heard a series of depraved insights into the world of the dictatorial leader of a polygamist sect, which has more than 10,000 members worldwide.
'Mr Jeffs had his big house, where he chose to warehouse hundreds of girls and women for his sexual gratification. The state of Texas has a big house too, and that is where Warren Jeffs should spend the rest of his days'
Assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols
One of Jeffs's nephews testified that he was raped by the supposed prophet when he was just five-years-old. He said Jeffs instructed him to keep the assault secret because it is 'between you, me and god'.
A niece also testified about an incident which occurred when she was aged seven and other witnesses spoke out, revealing a world of manipulation and control, where Jeffs banned followers from 'parades, dances, music, and even the colour red'.
Perhaps most shocking of all has been the revelation that some of the young wives assisted the paedophile with his sexual assaults.
In a confused world where they were brainwashed to service the demands of their leader, however abusive, three of Jeffs’s wives were said in court to have held down the 12-year-old victim while Jeffs raped her.
One of the girls bound the child's arms and legs to stop her moving, tapes seized from the compound where they lived in Eldorado, Texas, revealed.
It is unclear whether the women will be prosecuted for their roles in the abuse. Many argue their submission was borne out of a deeply engrained fear of Jeffs, who took over the community in 1998 from his father, who had raised him to believe the women were rightfully his to abuse as a birthright.
As sect leader, Jeffs 'documented everything he did, keeping track of every marriage he performed, every young woman he wed, even recording his intimate moments.'
WARREN JEFFS AND THE FLDS
The FLDS, which has at least 10,000 members, is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism and believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. They see Jeffs as God's spokesman on earth.
The church's traditional headquarters is along the Utah-Arizona border, but it established the Texas compound in 2004.
Police raided the group's remote West Texas ranch in April 2008, finding women dressed in frontier-style dresses and hairdos from the 19th century as well as seeing underage girls who were clearly pregnant.
The call to an abuse hotline that spurred the raid turned out to be a hoax, and more than 400 children who had been placed in protective custody were eventually returned to their families.
During a 2008 raid, these recordings, which helped secure his conviction, were seized by authorities. The explicit tapes, when played in court, caused shocked jurors to break down in tears.
One was 'a 20 minute audiotape that began and ended with a man saying a prayer' before sexually assaulting the 12-year-old in front of three other of his wives, according to prosecutors.
In another, Jeffs can be heard instructing his young wives how to please him sexually and telling them god would 'reject them' if they did not comply.
Softly telling five girls to 'set aside all your inhibitions', the convicted paedophile was heard giving the young girls detailed pointers during a graphic ten-minute tape played for the Texas jury.
The audiotape from 2004 was played in court before another, made within hours of the first, in which prosecutors say Jeffs can be heard having sex with all the girls at the same time.
In one tape, he is heard telling the girls they 'need to be excited'. Jurors also heard him tell the girls that if they refused to please him in what he dubbed the 'heavenly sessions', they would be 'rejected by God'.
In a cruel irony, the girls were encouraged by Jeffs by being told their compliance would help atone for the sins of their community.
Other shocking photographs have also emerged, including ones showing Jeffs holding and passionately kissing an underage female church member and one revealing a bed where ritual sex sessions were carried out in front of a church audience.
State witness Rebecca Musser - a former FLDS member who was married as a young girl to Jeffs' father - told the court she had received training about how beds in the temple were to be used in sexual rituals before it was built.
Miss Musser said beds inside the temple were arranged so that witnesses could see the abuse and that a special seat was placed for someone to record the sexual acts.
Haunting: Jeffs kisses one of his child brides, whose face has been blurred for her protection, in shocking pictures which have emerged during the trial
Abuser: These are just some of the shocking images that show convicted child sex cult leader Warren Jeffs with one of his child 'wives'
Claims: Brent Jeffs said he was abused by his uncle
Birthright: Rulon Jeffs with two of his brides
Testimony: Rebecca Musser arriving at court
While they have suffered under his dictatorship for years, It remains to be seen how women in Jeffs's community will react to his conviction and sentencing.
Seven other men in the church have already been prosecuted, with each receiving convictions and sentences ranging from six to 75 years. There is now no obvious heir to Jeffs's role as prophet.
Several times in his journals, Jeffs wrote of God telling him to take more and more young girls 'who can be worked with and easily taught'.
After a lifetime of abuse and indoctrination, reaction from the women is 'both elation and fear at the same time', Flora Jessop, a former member who escaped from the church in the 1980s, said.
THE TWISTED SEX TAPE INSTRUCTING YOUNG WIVES ON GROUP SEX, NUDITY AND BODY HAIR GROOMING
A jaw-dropping sex tape played in Warren Jeffs's sexual assault trial showed the church leader instructing his sister wives that they must 'work together' to please him sexually.
The 90-minute segment detailed how the young brides should become 'so natural as clothed as unclothed' and always shower before getting near him.
Mr Jeffs is also heard instructing the women on how to maintain their pubic hair and a woman is heard showing the other wives how to properly shave their armpits.
He says on the tape: 'No one sits around, everyone assists each other.'
Mr Jeffs wrote in his journal that on the night after his wedding to his 14-year-old victim, he took her and another of his new wives on a car ride outside the church's headquarters along the Utah-Arizona border for 'training.'
There, he instructed them on their responsibilities as his wives and had the session taped.
The recording was transcribed and placed in church records later seized by police.
Lead prosecutor Eric Nichols played the tape for jurors, who followed along using transcripts.
The recording was difficult to understand due to traffic noise, and the transcript wasn't made public.
'A good wife is trained for her husband and follows the spirit of peace,' Jeffs can be heard saying.
He also makes reference to 'drawing close' or 'being close,' which is how church members refer to sex. Two female voices are heard saying 'OK'.
Jeffs objected half a dozen times to the tape being played, arguing that the training session was protected by religious privacy rights - each time State District Judge Barbara Walther overruled him.
In it together: Grainy footage shows the girls playing together like schoolgirls ( Dailymail.co.uk )
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