Prosecutor says sect members could infer girls moved to U.S. for sexual purpose
CRANBROOK, B.C. — A prosecutor says members of religious sect in British Columbia carried out the instructions of a now-imprisoned polygamous leader to the letter, and could infer they were taking girls to the United States for a sexual purpose.
Peter Wilson told a B.C. Supreme Court judge in closing arguments on Monday that records from Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, show he told Brandon Blackmore that a 13-year-old girl “belonged” to Jeffs.
Wilson described co-accused Gail Blackmore as a “willing participant” in the girl’s marriage to Jeffs.
Jeffs, now 60, was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison in the United States for sexually assaulting two girls he claimed were his “spiritual” wives.