Texas child welfare authorities say 12 girls from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch are confirmed victims of sexual abuse and neglect because they were married at ages ranging from 12 to 15.

Those are among the conclusions reached in a final investigation into the raid that resulted in hundreds of children from the Utah-based polygamous sect being placed in state protective custody. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services released its long-anticipated report on the raid on the YFZ Ranch early Tuesday after a public-records request by the Deseret News.

"There were 43 girls removed from the ranch from the ages of 12 to 17 — which means that more than one out of every four pubescent girls on the ranch was in an underage marriage," the investigation claims. "262 other children were subjected to neglect because parents failed to remove their child from a situation in which the child would be exposed to sexual abuse committed against another child within their families or households."

Reacting to the report, FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop told the Deseret News the raid was not justified. "What Texas did was barbaric, and it's a terrible injustice," he said Tuesday. "It's un-American."

The report claims two girls were 12 when they married, three were 13; two were 14 and five girls were 15. Seven of the girls had one or more children after marriage. The report acknowledges the earliest of the spiritual marriages took place in 2004 and the latest was in July 2006. CPS identified the perpetrators as the parents and the husband of each girl.

Jessop said Texas authorities misinterpret their definition of "marriage."

"They tried to force the interpretation of marriage to involve sex, and it didn't work out for them," he said Tuesday.

Shortly after the raid, the FLDS Church said it would no longer condone underage marriages, instead encouraging its members to wait until they are of legal age before entering into any marriage arrangement.

CPS said its investigation began March 30 after receiving a report alleging physical and sexual abuse of a child on the YFZ Ranch. On April 3, law enforcement and CPS caseworkers went to the ranch.