Polygamist Lyle Jeffs' legal wife files for divorce 'citing rape within the church'

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Charlene Wall Jeffs, 58, is one of a reported nine wives of Lyle Jeffs
The couple married in 1983 and have 10 children together
He stepped up to lead the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when brother Warren Jeffs was sentenced to prison in 2007
Mrs Jeffs says she spent years in exile before being banished last year
Alleged the church only allow a group of men called 'seed bearers' to impregnate women, and the husbands stand by holding their wife's hand
Mrs Jeffs is fighting for custody of two of her children

Published: 16:50 EST, 24 April 2015 | Updated: 19:04 EST, 24 April 2015

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The legal wife of Lyle Jeffs - brother of Warren Jeffs and current leader of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - has officially filed for divorce from her husband in Utah, citing rape and illegal practices within the Mormon sect.

Charlene Wall Jeffs, 58, had 10 children with her husband and the two have been married for 31 years, but she claims the church has 'become even more disturbing than it was under Warren'.

Lyle Jeffs has multiple wives within the sect - nine, according to reports - but Mrs Jeffs is legally married to him and has been since 1983.

She claims to have been excommunicated in September 2014, and is now fighting to have her two youngest children, who still live with Mr Jeffs, returned to her.

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Leader: Lyle Jeffs stepped up to head the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when brother, Warren Jeffs, was sentenced to prison in 2007. His wife Charlene Jeffs has now filed for divorce

Lyle Jeffs is seen here leaving the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City in January 2015 with his other brother, Nephi Jeffs. The brothers of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs refused to answer questions about suspected child labor violations on a Utah pecan farm

'Disturbing': Lyle Jess' legal wife, Charlene Jeffs, says the church has become worse under his control

'Under Lyle's reign as substitute Prophet, the FLDS Church as become even more disturbing than it was under Warren,' Mrs Jeffs says in a petition filed earlier this month and was obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

'Of Lyle's multiple wives, I was never the favorite because I have a mind of my own.

'Lyle sent me away from the family to repent for the first time in November 2002 because ''I did not know how to properly treat the Priesthood in my life''.'

FLDS leaders are referred to as 'the Priesthood'.

Mrs Jeffs said she was only allowed to cook and clean during her expulsion and was not allowed to see her children.

'In the FLDS Church, children belong to the Priesthood and can be transferred to different mothers or different parents all together upon an order from the Priesthood,' she said in the petition.

Mrs Jeffs was 'repenting' for two years, but when she was allowed to return to her husband's compound in Hilldale, her children were not returned to her.

The children were split up among Jeff's 'spiritual wives'.

Previous reports claimed that Charlene Jeffs was the first of nine wives.

Mrs Jeffs said she was ordered to leave the compound on September 27 last year for being 'unrighteous'.

She is now trying to get the two children - a 17-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl - to come and live with her.

Compound: While the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has compounds all over the country, it is based in Utah, and the Jeffs live at a compound in Hilldale (picture). Mrs Jeffs says she was forced to leave Hillale last year for being 'unrighteous'

In the petition she says she is scared for her well-being and her children, who could be 'The Jeffs family is the FLDS equivalent of the British Royal Family and they have their own FLDS ''secret service'' to protect them from the outside world," Mrs Jeffs wrote in her petition.

She added that Mr Jeffs isn't aware she has no plans to return to the FLDS, and is scared of what he will do with the children when he finds out she speaking out against the church.

'If Lyle had any idea that I have gone ''apostate'', he would make my children ,' she said in the petition.

However the most startling of the allegations in the documents spoke of rape, which Mrs Jeffs claims is common practice.

She said a doctrine was enforced in recent years that said women had to be impregnated not by their husbands, but a 'seed bearer' - a group of men selected by the church.

The husbands were to hold their wives hands as the seed bearers had sex with the women.

'In layman terms, the husband is required to sit in the room while the chosen seed bearer, or a couple of them, rape his wife or wives,' Mrs Jeffs said in the petition, according to The Tribune.

Another practice, known as the 'Law of Sara', has FLDS women perform sex acts on each otther in preparation for a sexual encounter with a member of the Priesthood.

Mrs Jeffs said she is worried her daughter will be subjected to such a practice.

A community divided: Inside the town that Warren Jeffs ruled

Polygamist: FDLS leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison for child sex abuse. He is pictured here during his trial in 2007

Warren Jeffs, 59, was convicted in Utah in 2007 of two counts of first-degree felony rape for his role in the 2001 wedding of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin.

The convictions were reversed on the basis of erroneous jury instructions.