Woman who became polygamist cult leader Warren Jeff’s 65TH wife when she was just 18 – and he was 30 YEARS her senior – reveals how pedophile groomed her to become his lover and PUNISHED her when she rejected his sexual advances

A woman has candidly revealed what life was like inside a polygamous Mormon sect after becoming the 65th wife of polygamous pedophile ringleader Warren Jeffs.

Briell Decker appeared on a recent episode of the Cults for consciousness podcast to discuss her experiences within the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church (FLDS) – a breakaway group that split when mainstream Mormonism stopped practicing polygamy.

Being born into the religion in Sandy, Utah, she was groomed from an early age to one day become a plural wife of Jeffs.

She was only 18 when she married the self-proclaimed prophet, who was more than thirty years her senior, and was punished for resisting his affections.

Jeffs has since been convicted of two felony counts of child sexual abuse for having sex with two girls, aged 12 and 14.

Briell started by telling host Shelise Ann Sola how Jeffs had “assumed the authority to become the leader” just before her 18th birthday after his father Rulon passed away.

He claimed he was chosen by God and despite dozens of his former students testifying in his favor, Briell said she “saw red flags on the very first day.”

But she had little choice about their relationship.

“All marriages in the church were decided by the leader – they were all arranged marriages and if you did choose it was seen as very bad,” she explained.

Marrying the prophet was considered “an honor” by many – a sentiment not shared by Briell’s family.

The former FLDS explained, “I was preparing dinner the day (the wedding) took place, my dad walked into the room and my mom recognized the look on his face and even yelled ‘no.’

“My parents were scared and couldn’t really express much.”

Briell explained: ‘My wedding was definitely a secret wedding. My mother wasn’t invited to it.

“Jeffs was on the run from the law, so he didn’t want anyone to really know anything about it other than he invited my dad. My father cried when he took me there.”

She explained that it wasn’t until she arrived at the ceremony that she was told she would be marrying Jeffs himself, adding: ‘I was terrified of him. I was so afraid of him.’

But Briell went ahead with it despite having little understanding of relationships, sex education, anatomy or reproduction.

She said Jeffs, her school’s principal, “was the one who prepared me for this day,” adding, “He’s the one who groomed me.”

The pair shared a kiss at the end before their marriage came to an end and they were left alone for the first time as a married couple.

‘He sent my father and his brother out of the room. He sat on a chair and said, “come sit on my lap” and I hesitated because I was scared.

‘I was quite shocked when he confirmed that I would marry him. I started feeling foggier, so I hesitated.

‘I immediately saw the anger on his face. He was so angry.’

She explained that she eventually walked over to him and sat on his lap, adding: “He touched me everywhere and I was so numb.”

‘I didn’t really love him. I actually wasn’t even attracted to him. I believed in God a little when I married him, but I didn’t really love him.”

After becoming Jeff’s 65th wife, she admitted, “It just got worse over time because he had some doctrines that said you had to love your sister wives, you had to make sacrifices for them, and in my situation so did I’ I didn’t love him so I never cared.

“He had loads of women so I wouldn’t get my turn in any situation and it would infuriate him because over time he realized I wasn’t attracted to him.”

Briell explained that former leader Rulon had a “rotation cycle where each woman had a turn after so many days,” but that his son did not practice such a system.

‘WWhen I went into his family, he said, “God will tell me if you’re ever worth it (for me to spend time with).”

“For a lot of women, it hurt them quite a bit, I think, because they always tried to do everything he said… if he didn’t like him, they didn’t go get a turn.

“It didn’t matter if God said it or not, it didn’t really have anything to do with that.”

She continued, “In my mind I didn’t like him so I didn’t really care, and I was quite bold in saying that polygamy itself didn’t really hurt me.”

But Briell said she was ultimately punished for her disinterest in Jeffs, who she said was “controlling” and estimated to have more than 80 wives.

The sect leader usually rotated household chores – such as cooking and sewing – among his wives every month, but she had to “do each of these tasks for an hour every day.”

“He put me in survival mode from day one… I was literally running from one job to another and by the time I got home at night I was falling asleep and not waking up on time in the morning. because I was so tired.’

Nevertheless, Briell said she should never lie to Jeffs because “the repercussion would be quite significant, since he was the leader.”

Briell explained that she eventually “turned on” her husband and was forced into hiding after trying to leave.

She was subjected to ‘targeted harassment’ by other members of the cult – claiming someone was even ordered to kill her – before finally breaking away at the age of 26.

Briell concluded, “When I realized that I had freedom in my life for the first time after escaping, it was such a big deal to me and it still is.

‘I want that for everyone. I really want everyone to break these chains psychologically and sometimes even physically so that they can hopefully get a taste of freedom.”

In 2011, Warren Jeffs was sent away for life after being convicted of two offenses of child sexual abuse for having sex with two girls aged 12 and 14.

He is currently serving a life sentence plus 20 years for the charges, but it was previously reported that he has continued to preach to the remaining members of the FLDS from his prison cell.

As of 2018, the Guardian reported that there were still about 10,000 active members of the Church.