Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse and sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
A brand-new documentary about a seriously disturbing cult has just landed on Netflix, and it's since climbed to the 'No. 3 in Series Today' in the UK.
The four-parter titled Trust Me: The False Prophet, which hit the streamer last week (8 April), follows cult psychology expert Christine Marie and her videographer husband Tolga Katas, who moved to Short Creek, Utah, to document and support a community in crisis.
Back in 2011, Warren Jeffs, the leader of the breakaway Mormon sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), was convicted of child sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison.
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Following his imprisonment, Samuel Bateman, a former rank-and-file FLDS member, proclaimed himself a prophet and began to amass followers and take multiple wives, including minors.
Check out the official Netflix trailer here:
Directed by Emmy Award–winning filmmaker Rachel Dretzin, the documentary features footage Christine and Tolga captured while inside Bateman’s inner circle.
Under the impression that they were making a documentary that would spread and uplift his message throughout the world, Bateman happily welcomed the cameras, totally unaware they were secretly gathering evidence of his crimes, including the sexual abuse of underage girls.
The docuseries ends with Bateman's arrest and a kidnapping plot he later orchestrates from jail.
In December 2024, the cult leader was handed a 50-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
While some of his adult wives no longer associate with him, others still remain loyal, but all of his underage victims testified against him in court at the time.
Dretzin, as well as Christine Marie and Naomi 'Nomz' Bistline, a survivor of Bateman’s sect, have since sat down with Tudum to reveal what they're doing now in life.
At its peak, Bateman’s group included at least 20 wives, nearly half of them were minors as young as nine years old.
Christine had heard rumours that he was married to children, but struggled to confirm it. "I was not permitted to be alone with the underage girls," she said.
In November 2021, during a car ride, she finally captured something concrete as Bateman admitted on audio to crimes involving underage girls, while victims in the backseat confirmed his account as he coached their responses.
While the recordings weren't enough to bring him down, they did expose the level of psychological control at play.
"Groupthink is so powerful," Christine continued. "It’s like superglue. You can’t just wake up when you’re getting your thoughts reinforced by other people you respect and love."
Even after his arrest more than a year later, that control continued.
Authorities had placed his underage wives together in one group home, with Christine outlining: "The power dynamics continued because you had the stronger girls making the younger girls terrified of speaking to law enforcement."
In November 2022, Bateman, from prison, orchestrated a kidnapping plot. Eight minors vanished from state custody, and they were later found in Spokane and placed in separate foster homes.
"All the minors have come out [against Bateman], and the reason for that is very simple: They were all removed from the community and from their other sister wives and put into foster care," Dretzin explained. "Once they had the perspective of being outside the group, they were able to see what had happened to them and speak out."
Julia
The adults, however, tell a different story.
"The vast majority of the adults featured in this film are still followers of Sam Bateman to this day," Dretzin noted. "All of the minors [in the documentary] have finally separated from Sam and 'woken up,' as we call it, but in many cases, their parents have not."
Three women were also able to break away.
Julia Johnson played a key role in the investigation, but at a significant personal risk.
Her husband, Moroni Johnson, had pushed her to give four of their daughters, including two minors, to Bateman as wives. In July 2022, she began secretly meeting Christine and sharing firsthand accounts.
"Julia did not give her children away," Christine said. "Julia fought it and didn’t know what to do about it. She was crying, having mental breakdowns over it."
Leaving meant confronting her husband as she recalled telling him: "We’re following a false prophet, and he’s leading us right to hell, and I’m not going to go there anymore."
"Julia is extraordinary," Dretzin added. "In many ways [she’s] the heroine of the film, because it takes so much for a woman at that age to turn against her husband and to risk what she risked in going for help."
Julia and Moroni have since separated. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit trafficking of a minor for sexual purposes and began a 25-year sentence in May 2025.
Christine and Julia, however, remain close with the former sharing: "I have nothing but praise to heap upon her. I am so proud of her."
Moretta and Nomz
Moretta Johnson and Naomi 'Nomz' Bistline were once among Bateman’s most devoted wives.
Moretta, Julia’s daughter, was a minor when she was taken as a wife.
Nomz had been brought into the sect by her guardian after a decade in his care, and both defended Bateman before later becoming one of the only two adult wives to testify against him.
"There was nothing compelling about him," Nomz said. "Everyone of us really hated him at first. And then he would break us down and make us into what he wanted. It was a lot of abuse and coercion."
Christine chimed in: "If you are in a relationship with your abuser, you’re safer by doing whatever they want … by convincing yourself that you’re buying into it when, deep in your heart, you’re really not.
"When I watched the documentary and I saw them, I could see the trauma bonds and I knew that that was not who they really were."
Both women were arrested for their roles in the kidnapping and sentenced to prison.
"Moretta had spent a year in prison," Julia says. "Her words are, 'Prison set me free.' It helped her get into a thought process of her own."
Nomz echoed: "Prison was the best and worst thing that happened to me. It forced me to start thinking for myself. It forced me to start questioning things."
Since her release, Moretta has left the community, married, and started a family. She and Nomz remain close.
Nomz has also left the FLDS and is rebuilding her life.
"There’s so much that I didn’t even know I had a knack for," she says. "I still draw a lot." She has explored modelling, but music is now her focus. "Music helps me process things," she said. "It helps me let it out."
Dretzin calls her transformation 'breathtaking'.
"She’s the only one of the young women who’s come forward publicly, and it took an immense amount of courage," she added.
Trust Me: The False Prophet is currently available to watch on Netflix.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Topics: Netflix, TV And Film, Documentaries, Real Life, True Life, Explained, US News
Rhiannon Ingle