Fresno police described finding the children's bodies in a pile in a bedroom when they searched Wesson's house. Eight of them, aged from one to 25, had been shot in the right eye. The ninth had been shot in the left eye.

The eldest child was the mother of another of the dead children. Wesson was the father of both. The nine children had six mothers, of whom two were Wesson's daughters and one his niece.

Wesson had lectured the children in 1995 about the need to commit mass suicide if the police or social workers threatened their way of life, the court was told.

A detective said: He would ask them, 'If the time came, would you be ready to die for the Lord?'.

Kiani Wesson, one of the surviving daughters and the mother of two of the victims, told police that, if the authorities tried to break up the family, the older ones would kill the children and commit suicide.

Rosie Solorio, a niece of Wesson's, whose child by him was also among the victims, told another detective that Wesson called his girls his soldiers. When the time came to commit suicide, the eldest ones were to go out and kill the rest of the family members that were no longer in his house, she said.

Wesson has pleaded not guilty to murdering the children as well as to multiple charges of sexually abusing the girls who lived with him as far back as 1988.

Some of his alleged victims he married; others he told he was preparing for marriage.

Wesson was obsessed with David Koresh, head of the Branch Davidians who fought FBI agents at their compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993, the court heard. He allegedly wanted to create a similar cult within his own family.

Family members told police that they were ordered to watch reports about Koresh whenever they appeared on television.

The man on the screen was doing God's work, he would tell the children, who were forced to read the King James Bible twice a day and listen to Wesson's sermons.

Father 'killed nine of his children' - Telegraph, 10th April 2004.