B.C. mother who gave teen to polygamist rapist now out of jail
The Bountiful mother who delivered her 13-year-old daughter into the hands of a polygamist rapist is now out of jail, pending her appeal.
Emily Ruth Gail Blackmore is back in the fundamentalist Mormon community in southeastern B.C. and will be allowed to stay there until the B.C. Court of Appeal hears her application next June.
In mid-August, the 60-year-old Blackmore was sentenced to seven months in jail, 18 months’ probation and 120 hours of community service in nearby Creston following her conviction on a charge of removing a child from Canada for an unlawful purpose.
Her estranged husband, Brandon James Blackmore, was also convicted and sentenced to a year in jail followed by 18 months’ probation. Both parents were to provide DNA samples and be registered as sex offenders for 10 years.
Gail Blackmore’s appeal, filed Sept. 11, seeks to either have her conviction overturned or to have her sentence replaced with a conditional sentence that could be served in Bountiful.
In 2004, Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, ordered Brandon Blackmore to bring the girl to him in Utah. Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence in Texas for the sexual assault of two 12-year-old girls, told Brandon that the girl “belonged” to him.
Within hours, Brandon and Gail Blackmore along with their 13-year-old daughter and another daughter who was already married to Jeffs, crossed the border.
Soon after they arrived in Utah, the parents and the young girl met with Jeffs for “spiritual counselling.” The marriage ceremony that both parents attended was held a few days later.
Jeffs raped the girl that fall, a few weeks after her 14th birthday, and made an audio recording of it.
Gail Blackmore remains a devout member of the FLDS, while Brandon Blackmore was excommunicated a few years ago and was stripped of his home, wives and children.