Four members of the religious Emankaya-sect from Randers have been given prison sentences for unlawfully sheltering a 17-year-old girl from her parents and the authorities. Despite a courtroom plea by the young girl herself, who said she had joined the sect of her own free will and considered the sect's collective in Gjerlev as her home, the judge ruled that sect leaders had consistently refused demands from police and the local authorities to hand over the girl, who is still under the age of responsibility. The sect's original spiritual leader, Uffe Hove, was sentenced to seven years in jail last year for beating a 50-year-old woman to death during a sado-masochistic ritual.