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Consent for sex is different than marriage. Children in Utah can get married at 16. Are you denying that?

You can get married at 16 in almost every state (at least girls) if you have parental permission and/or a court order. This so called "marriage" was not legal in any sense, since he was married and it was clearly under duress. I don't why the age of marriage in Utah is being made an issue...this "ceremony" was no doubt part of the brainwashing.

She was not legally married to this creep. If she was, where is the record of it? She would have had to show ID or a birth certificate to be legally married. The age in Utah to get married is not a factor here... unless someone digs up a marriage license with her name on it.

She was not married to him legally... He faces counts in each state and each time for raping this young girl, this is why they are tracing his steps with her over the last 9 months (that is if he did - I hope he didn't touch her... but it is doubtful). At this point is does not matter anymore if she walked away with him or if her kidnapped her. If he had sex with her and was not legally married to her, he will be sitting in jail a long time. Let's say he raped her once a week over the 9 months, that is 36 counts of rape... Lets say out of the 36 times he raped her in Utah 18 times... He can get at least 5 years for each count of rape that occurred in Utah. I would presume that this will turn into a federal case due to all the states involved and he will face a federal court.

You are correct, age of consent to sex in most states tends to be higher than age of consent to marriage (though for a dozen different reasons mentioned on this thread, ES was in no position to consent to either).

Not every shotgun wedding involves a pregnancy.
It's rumored that a prominent NBA star married his 17 year old girlfriend because her parents were threatening to press charges for statutory rape.