US polygamist jailed for five years in Utah

A polygamist who has five wives and 30 children and claims to be an original Mormon has been jailed for five years.

A polygamist who has five wives and 30 children and claims to be an original Mormon has been jailed for five years.

Tom Green was jailed in Provo, Utah, three months after being found guilty of four counts of bigamy.

Green has become America's best-known polygamist and gone on talk shows including Jerry Springer.

The 52-year-old former Mormon missionary claimed his conviction was "persecution" of his religious beliefs.

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But judge Guy Burningham sentenced him to five years in jail for each count, to run concurrently, and ordered him to pay back £54,060 he fraudulently claimed in welfare.

The father-of-30, one of whom was born earlier this month, is due to appeal against the order to pay back the cash but his defence lawyer gave no indication that he will attempt to overturn the verdict.

And he still faces another trial, on charges of raping his 13-year-old wife Linda Kunz when he married her in 1986, which could end in another term.

She is now pregnant with her seventh child by Green and he has asked a court to dismiss the charges.

Green had claimed throughout his week-long trial in May that he was following the true beliefs of the Mormon church's founder, Brigham Young.

But the church outlawed polygamy 50 years later to allow Utah to become a state and the practice was driven underground, with an estimated 30,000 polygamists in the state and its neighbours today.

PA