No Evidence To Convict Woman In Child Brides Case, B.C. Court Hears

CRANBROOK, B.C. — An impartial adviser at the trial of three people from a polygamous community in British Columbia says there's no evidence to convict at least one of those charged.

 

Joe Doyle, who is acting as an adviser to the court, says there's nothing that shows Gail Blackmore aided or abetted in the removal of a 13-year-old girl from Canada for a sexual purpose.

 

Blackmore and her former husband Brandon Blackmore are both alleged to have taken the teenage girl to America in 2004 to marry Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the polygamous sect.

 

Doyle told a B.C. Supreme Court judge in Cranbrook today that while there is a record that Brandon Blackmore was instructed by Jeffs to bring the girl to the United States, there is no such information about Gail Blackmore.

 

He also highlighted inconsistencies in priesthood records kept by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and says there is no record that the 13-year-old actually crossed the border in the same vehicle as the Blackmores in February 2004.

 

James Oler faces the same charges as the Blackmores, but in connection to the marriage of a 15-year-old girl to another elder of the church.

 

All three accused are members of the religious sect in Bountiful, where some residents practise plural marriage.