During her testimony today in federal court, Elizabeth Smart said she was raped multiple times a day by her abductor, Brian David Mitchell, a self-proclaimed religious prophet.
Describing Mitchell as “evil, wicked, manipulative, sneaky, slimy, selfish, greedy, not religious, not spiritual, not close to God,” Smart said her kidnapper could turn his religious rants off and on, depending on whether it would help him get what he needed.
Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 from her home in Salt Lake City, testified that Mitchell used religion to justify sexually abusing her for months.
“Any time that I showed resistance or hesitation he turned to me and said, ‘The Lord says you have to do this, you have to experience the lowest form of humanity to experience the highest,'” said Smart, now 21.
Smart testified that Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, kept her tied to a cable strung between two trees. Mitchell would ply her with drugs and alcohol to lower her resistance.
“He said that he would kill anybody that would come into the camp, or kill me if I ever tried to escape or yell out,” she testified.
Mitchell, who has twice been deemed mentally unfit for trial, was not present during Smart’s testimony. He was removed from the courtroom, and watched via a video feed from another room.
UPDATE: May 21, 2010 – See sentencing photos and video here.
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