Appeal filed in B.C. child-bride case by member of polygamous sect

A composite image shows Gail Blackmore leaving court during a lunch break and Brandon Blackmore arriving at court for the sentencing hearing in Cranbrook B.C. on June 30, 2017. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

CRANBROOK, B.C. -- A British Columbia woman wants her conviction overturned after she was sentenced to seven months in jail for taking a 13-year-old girl to the United States to marry the leader of a polygamous church.

Gail Blackmore has filed an appeal arguing B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Pearlman was wrong to find her guilty and imposed a sentence that is unduly harsh and excessive.

Blackmore and her former husband, Brandon Blackmore, were found guilty in February of removing a child from Canada for a sexual purpose.

Their trial heard that the girl was taken across the border in 2004 to marry Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who is now serving a life sentence for assaulting two of his child brides.

In his sentencing decision, Pearlman says neither Blackmore displayed any remorse for marrying the girl to a man who was 49 years old at the time.

Blackmore's lawyer, Greg DelBigio, declined to comment on the appeal.