Canadian Polygamist With 149 Kids Sentenced To House Arrest
June 28 2018, Published 11:19 a.m. ET
Winston Blackmore, a Canadian polygamist with 24 wives and 149 kids, was just sentenced to six months of house arrest. As RadarOnline.com has learned, the 61-year-old and another man were found guilty of the crime, but were unashamed due to their religious beliefs.
“I’m guilty of living my religion and that’s all I’m saying today because I’ve never denied that,” he proudly told AP. “Twenty-seven years and tens of millions of dollars later, all we’ve proved is something we’ve never denied. I’ve never denied my faith. This is what we expected.”
James Oler, 53, another former bishop in British Columbia’s Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was also sentenced to house arrest after investigators found he has five wives and at least 11 kids.
Blackmore was also given 150 hours of community service while Oler was given 75, and three months house arrest.
Both men were found guilty of being involved in “celestial marriages” with women from the year 1975. Several of those women were underage at the time of their union.
After they were charged with their crimes, one of Blackmore’s daughters defended him on Facebook, saying that she was proud of him, their family, and their beliefs.
Justice Sheri Ann Donegan even said during sentencing that though both Blackmore and Oler could have faced up to five years in prison, she decided their punishment based on their otherwise apparently law-abiding lives. She added that it seemed unlikely that Blackmore would change his ways even after being released from house arrest, as he’s firmly planted in his beliefs.
According to CBS, Winston Blackmore and James Oler are the first Canadians to be found guilty of polygamy since 1906.
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