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But in determining whether or for how long to imprison the Blackmores, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Pearlman might consider the penalties in the 2010 child trafficking law. It has a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment and a mandatory minimum of five years in jail. The penalty increases to life with a mandatory minimum of six years if it involved aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, murder or kidnapping.

During the trial, it was clear that the parents’ only rationale for their acts was the same defence used by Nazis during the Nuremberg trials: They were only following orders.

Gail Blackmore refused legal representation and made no effort to defend herself. Her estranged husband did have a lawyer. His strongest argument was that the Crown failed to prove that his client knew before leaving Canada that Jeffs intended to sexually exploit his child.

The judge rejected that argument based on the testimony of former FLDS members. All of them said they were taught at home, at school and at church that the purpose of marriage was to produce as many children as possible, and that wives must be fully compliant to their husbands’ desires.

It all began with a phone call to Brandon Blackmore on Feb. 26, 2004 from Jeffs, who told him “the Lord had revealed that his 13-year-old daughter belonged to me and we would discuss that when he brought her down south sometime Friday.”

According to Jeffs’ diary, which was entered as evidence, the prophet clearly knew that what he was asking Blackmore to do was illegal. He noted that the marriage “will hasten the persecutions against me and this people as the apostates in Canada will inform the authorities.”