New trial ordered in child bride case

VANCOUVER — The British Columbia Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial for the former leader of a religious sect who was acquitted of taking a 15-year-old girl across the U.S. border for a sexual purpose.

The Crown appealed the verdict in the case of James Oler, the former leader of a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints community in Bountiful, B.C., which practises polygamy.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge acquitted Oler last year because he was not convinced Oler did anything within Canada’s borders to arrange the girl’s transfer to the U.S. to marry a member of the sect.

There was no evidence confirming Oler’s location when he received a phone call from church president Warren Jeffs in 2004 asking him to bring the girl to the U.S., and no record of either Oler or the teenager crossing the border.

But special prosecutor Peter Wilson told the Appeal Court that proof of wrongdoing inside Canada was not necessary for a conviction.

The law against removing children for a sexual purpose is designed to protect youth who are taken to another country and subjected to an offence that would be a crime under Canadian law, he argued, and it therefore applies to Oler’s alleged actions in the U.S.

The Appeal Court agreed and in a written decision released Tuesday said the trial judge erred.

“It cannot be said that it would offend international comity for the Canadian criminal law to redress the harm of removing an ordinarily resident child from Canada for the purpose of activity that would be an offence in Canada,” wrote Justice Mary Saunders on behalf of a three-judge panel.

“Canada has a compelling interest in protecting this vulnerable subset of the public, even if the accused was not on Canadian soil when the child was removed.”

However, Saunders wrote the law does require evidence that the child was in Canada when the accused arranged to have her removed.