A man was found guilty in the United States yesterday on each of five counts related to his very public adherence to the illegal practice of polygamy. Tom Green (52) was found guilty in Utah on four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal non-support for failing to provide financial support to nine of the children he fathered, following the week-long trial. Green is married to five women, including two sets of sisters, and is believed to have already fathered as many as 29 children.
Four of his wives are currently pregnant. A fundamentalist Mormon, he faces up to 20 years in prison on the convictions, which followed a highly publicised, week-long trial which reopened old wounds and reinvigorated debate in Utah on the once-common practice of men marrying more than one wife.
The trial was Utah's first prosecution of polygamy in half a century, and shed light on a lifestyle which has fallen into disfavour with Mormon Church hierarchy. Utah only became a state in 1886 after the Mormon Church officially banned polygamy. But an estimated 30,000 Utah residents, many of whom believe the Mormon Church changed its beliefs only out of political expediency, still practice polygamy.
