Judge to rule in B.C. child bride case centred on sect’s polygamous beliefs
CRANBROOK, B.C. — A B.C. Supreme Court judge is expected to deliver his ruling Friday in the case of three people accused of removing girls from Canada so they could be placed in plural marriages.
Evidence presented to Justice Paul Pearlman in a Cranbrook, B.C., courtroom late last year delved into the polygamous beliefs and practices in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Brandon Blackmore, Gail Blackmore and James Oler — who are, or have been members of the church — are accused of taking girls across the border for a sexual purpose in 2004.
The trio are connected to the community of Bountiful in southeastern British Columbia, where the trial heard plural marriage was practised.