How I infiltrated a sex trafficking ring led by deranged 'prophet' Samuel Bateman who raped his underage wives and forced followers to take part in orgies

The glamorous blonde who brought down a monster who preyed on girls as young as nine under the guise of being a religious prophet has spoken out on how she infiltrated his cult to end his sickening reign.

Christine Katas worked for years to persuade authorities to take action against Samuel Bateman who had moved in in a bid to fill the void after fundamentalist Mormon Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison.

Now, talking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Katas, 64, has told how she brought about the false prophet’s downfall and led to him pleading guilty to more than 50 counts ranging from sex trafficking to child rape.  

Bateman is due to be sentenced on November 25. The plea deal means he will receive between 20 and 50 years behind bars. 

‘It was difficult and emotionally intense,’ Katas told DailyMail.com at her home in Colorado City, Arizona. ‘And even scary sometimes.'

But she said she knew all her work had been worth it when Bateman was eventually arrested.

‘Primarily I was relieved because things were getting more intense and more scary, and I did not know what his next move would be because he had become so unhinged.

‘It took a tremendous emotional toll on me because I love these people. I knew they were victims when they did not know they were victims.'

Katas and her husband Tolga, 58, moved to Colorado City from Las Vegas in 2016. They worked to help women and girls in the FLDS through her charity Voices for Dignity.

But then in 2019 they suddenly found themselves living next to a nightmare world of child brides, mass orgies and suffocating control brought about by Bateman, the new prophet in town.

Bateman had quit the church after renouncing his allegiance to Jeffs and was running a cult of his own.

Katas decided she had to make it her business to find out who Bateman was and how he had amassed 20 wives – 10 of them minors – and, critically, whether he was sexually abusing the young girls.

‘There were red flags from the beginning, but I didn't have any hard evidence that there was physical abuse going on until later, she told DailyMail.com.

‘When that became clear, I immediately went to law enforcement.

What Katas discovered was shocking.

She found he repeatedly raped 'brides' aged as young as nine and ordered his followers to participate in sordid hotel room orgies.

Charging documents allege that Bateman even raped a male follower in front of his children to 'bond' with him and ordered his adult brides to give sex demonstrations to the younger girls so they would know how to please him. 

The depraved 48-year-old also invited followers LaDell, 45, and Torrance, 36, Bistline, who were later convicted for their part in the conspiracy in October, to have sex with his brides – including one occasion that saw Torrance anally rape a 13-year-old girl.

Until now, Katas's identity and role in Bateman's downfall had been kept a closely guarded secret even after his arrest in September 2022 when he was collared towing a U-Haul trailer with three of his child brides inside through Flagstaff, Arizona.

At that point, Katas had been inveigling her way into his inner circle for more than 18 months and had tipped off police and the FBI to his activities repeatedly, only to be told that hard evidence was needed for them to arrest him.

In the end, she succeeded in getting what she needed – providing the authorities with tapes showing Bateman interacting with the women and girls and turning over an admission from one of the self-proclaimed prophet's followers that sickening sex abuse was rife in his cult.

'My husband and I made the decision to spend as much time with these people as we could,' Katas explained.

'We were hoping someone would come forward with information because law enforcement needed a victim.

'In the meantime, we were gathering what evidence we could.'

Like his victims, Bateman was raised in the FLDS – a secretive offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church. It broke away when the LDS abandoned polygamy and moved to the Short Creek area – that includes Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, just over the Utah state border – in the 1930s.

FLDS leader Jeffs, now 68, had amassed 78 wives, many underage, by the time he was arrested and jailed for life in Texas on child sex charges in 2011. He is not eligible for parole until 2038.

Despite his conviction, for the FLDS, Jeffs remains in charge – and has repeatedly been caught issuing orders to his followers from his jail cell in Palestine, Texas.

He was also stripped of his property which included virtually every home in Hildale and Colorado City, and a 46-bedroom mansion with the words 'Pray and Obey' emblazoned on the chimney stack that has since been turned into a women's refuge.

Until 2019, Bateman was loyal to Jeffs. But then he claimed to have had a vision he declared himself a prophet, and started up on his own.

That, and his attempt to bribe his daughter to have sex with him in exchange for $50 and a bag of Doritos, spelled the end of his first marriage.

'He was never an FLDS prophet,' said Esther Bistline, 47, a current member of the church and a relative of the Bistline brothers.

'He was an FLDS person at one time, but when his wife Lydia left him, he left the FLDS, and he was no longer FLDS when he started his little cult situation.'

Even so, it didn't take him long to begin acquiring new wives and followers from among the ranks of the FLDS, among them the Bistline brothers and a Nebraska businessman who has since turned witness for the FBI.

Court papers obtained by DailyMail.com show Bateman almost immediately began demanding the trio's wives and daughters as brides – among them LaDell's wife Josephine, who is now serving 15 years in prison for her role in the scheme, and their nine and 10-year-old daughters.

He 'married' his first child bride in March 2020 and, despite his disgust at her wetting the bed, proceeded to repeatedly anally rape the nine-year-old girl.

Other 'wives' followed and by the time of his arrest, Bateman had 10 adult and 10 underage brides – all of whom were subjected to his sexual abuse.

For much of 2019 and 2020, Bateman had lived between Colorado City and Lincoln, Nebraska, but ultimately settled in the remote Arizona town – housing the women and girls into a pair of shabby homes dubbed 'the green house' and 'the blue house' in charging documents.

It was there that he and his wives met Katas who had grown close to the FLDS community through her charitable work and her efforts to help them remain in their homes after the federal government began selling off Jeffs's property empire.

'Sam came across as a very overzealous religious person who used his testimony about Godly things as a way to get social status,' Katas said.

'In my opinion, he was motivated by the benefits that all cult leaders want, which is money, power and sex.

'When you have this position in any sort of Mormon offshoot when you are a prophet, you can abuse it.

'And he did that to get more money, more sex, more power and control over people. He did not use it to benefit his believers or to benefit the world.

'It was all about how it could benefit him.' 

From the start, Katas said she noticed red flags – not least the fact Bateman had 20 women living with him, including underage girls.

She wasn't the only suspicious one: in July 2020, the Arizona Department of Child Safety visited Bateman's shabby compound and asked to speak with the nine-year-old.

Initially, Bateman refused to allow them entry and then oversaw the interview with the child – even feeding her answers.

Like Katas, Josephine Bistline's mother Josephine Barlow also spotted the signs – even calling the police in a bid to protect her granddaughters.

But without anyone prepared to talk, there was little the cops could do. 'I had to stay involved with them,' Katas told DailyMail.com.

'I wanted to keep my eye on what was happening with the children, and I wanted to be a resource for them, for the adult women, if they needed anything as well.

'It became my life just trying to make sure that they were okay.'

She told DailyMail.com that despite inevitable repercussions if they were found out, she and her husband spent as much time at Bateman's home as they could, knowing that he couldn't carry out his campaign of abuse while they were present.

It would take another year before Katas gained the trust of enough of Bateman's wives and followers to obtain the smoking gun in the form of an admission from one of his inner circle.

She also obtained video of Bateman at home being sung to by his wives and other footage which she then provided to the authorities.

'Eventually, a very brave woman did come forward to me and disclosed some of the crimes that had been taking place,' Katas said.

'I'm not going to say her name, but she is a hero, and she is the reason the entire investigation could finally get rolling.

'It was frustrating that the investigation didn't go faster, but the police were following the book and doing what they had to do to get the case right.

'That is what took so long, and that is why we had to stay involved with these people until that victim had the courage to come forward.'

Even after his arrest, Bateman continued to control his followers – including telling his adult wives to reset their phones to the factory setting in a jailhouse phone call to hide whatever evidence they might contain.

At his behest, six of his adult wives also went to the Arizona Department of Child Safety group homes where the child victims had been taken and spirited them away to Spokane, Washington – a move that saw them slapped with kidnap charges and jailed.

Although his followers maintained their innocence until found guilty at trial, Bateman chose to make a plea deal – admitting his guilt in April.

According to Katas, who has continued to support Bateman's adult and child brides, none of the young girls have chosen to return to the FLDS and are instead trying to build new lives outside of the church.

She and Esther, who Bateman also tried to claim as a wife, now hope he receives the maximum 50-year term.

'It's been shocking to me to realize the things that he's done,' Esther told DailyMail.com. 'I didn't personally see it, but through the indictments and things in the court, I came to the realization what he did, and it just makes me sick.

'I just can't even believe that someone that I knew growing up turned into this kind of person.'

Katas added: 'With the immense amount of damage he did to individuals and families, I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than 50 years.

'That is what I hope he gets because aside from committing all these crimes, he did it in the name of God.

'He did it to innocent people whose beliefs he preyed upon so he deserves the maximum.'