The temple ‘contains an area where there is a bed where males over the age of 17 engage in sexual activity with female children under the age of 17’, said an affidavit released on Wednesday quoting a confidential informant who left the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Agents found a bed in the temple with disturbed linens and what appeared to be a female hair, said the affidavit signed by Texas Ranger Leslie Brooks Long.

The Rangers are the state's investigative law enforcement arm.

The search of the compound in Eldorado, 64 kilometres south of San Angelo, began April three after a 16-year-old girl called a local family violence shelter to report her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her.

Since then, the state has taken legal custody of 416 children, who are being housed at two sites in San Angelo, about 322 kilometres west of San Antonio.

Another 139 women voluntarily left the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, known as the YFZ Ranch, and were being housed with the children.