Disturbing Netflix docu-series about cult leader who married children soars up streaming chart

When cult psychology expert Christine Marie and her videographer husband Tolga Katas moved to Utah to document a community reeling in the aftermath of the arrest of its leader, they uncovered a case just as sinister.

In 2011, Warren Jeffs – the leader of the breakaway Mormon polygamous cult called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years after being found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and child sexual assault.

Five years earlier he’d been placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List for arranging illegal child marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls, while he was also later charged with incest and sexual conduct with minors.

He was eventually sentenced to prison for raping two child brides – aged just 12 and 15.

After his arrest the cult was on the brink of falling apart without a leader – before a man called Samuel Bateman stepped up. Now proclaiming himself as a prophet, he began to amass both loyal followers and multiple wives, several of who were minors.

Upon uncovering his crimes, Marie and Katas secretly began documenting the cult from within its inner circle after they’d managed to gain the trust of Bateman – who was under the impression their project would spread his message throughout the world, not lead to his arrest.

Their investigation is detailed in the new ‘riveting’ four-part Netflix documentary series Trust Me: The False Prophet, which sees them ‘expose Bateman and bring him to justice’. It is currently the most-watched series on the streaming platform in the UK.

Here’s everything we know about the disturbing cult and its leaders.

What is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and who is Warren Jeffs?

The FLDS Church is a Mormon fundamentalist group whose members practice polygamy that is based in Utah.

It’s been defined as a cult and has come under scrutiny for years over allegations of child sexual abuse, child marriage, human trafficking, child labour abuses, welfare fraud and the ostracizing of members.

Several of its members and leaders have been investigated for or convicted of sexual offenses – including Warren Jeffs. The 70-year-old took over as the president of the church from his father, Rulon Jeffs, in 2002. Rulon himself had taken over in 1986 and had an estimated 20 wives and 60 children. Warren, who had around 80 wives, still claims leadership of the church despite being behind bars.  

What is Trust Me: The False Prophet about?

The Netflix documentary Trust Me: The False Prophet chronicles the rise of Bateman, the self-proclaimed heir to Jeffs – and reveals ‘the depths of his control and the women brave enough to speak up’.

It was also directed by Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey’s Rachel Dretzin and features ‘unprecedented access, never-before-seen footage, and firsthand accounts from inside the group’.

‘Trust Me offers intimate access to a normally closed world — and in doing so, I hope it exposes both the violence that enforced secrecy enables and what it takes to tell the truth when everything is at stake,’ she told Netflix’s Tudum.

‘What these women did matters far beyond their community. It is a blueprint for how to dismantle even the most entrenched systems of abuse.’

Who is Samuel Bateman and what happened to him?

In 2019 Bateman began gaining followers after proclaiming himself as a prophet of the FLDS and taking wives as young as nine-years-old. He also shared live video streams of child sexual abuse to his followers and transported children between states for sexual abuse.

He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping and was sentenced to 50 years in prison in December 2024.

During his sentencing, US District Judge Susan Brnovich told Bateman: ‘You should not have the opportunity to be free and never have the opportunity to be around young women. You took them from their homes, from their families and made them into sex slaves. You stripped them of their innocence and childhood.’

Eleven of his adult followers were all convicted on charges related to the child sexual abuse conspiracy.

What else to watch after Trust Me: The False Prophet?

For those wanting to understand more about the FLDS and its leader, the 2022 documentary mini-series Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey also follows Jeffs’ crimes.

At the time of its release on Netflix, director Dretzin said: ‘Our focus [is] not only on the experience of being in that cult. It’s on the people, particularly the women who managed to defy it and escape it, which – if you know anything about the FLDS – is a pretty miraculous and incredible thing to do.’

Trust Me: The False Prophet is streaming on Netflix.

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