http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/061397/met_travelermarriage.html

State legal marriage age raised

Web posted Jun. 13 at 01:05 AM

By Kathy Steele

South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - South Carolina has raised the bar on the legal age for marriages to 14 years for girls and 16 for boys.

Gov. David Beasley signed the new state law Thursday.

The bill is in response to reports that girls as young as 12 were being forced into arranged marriages with older men in the Irish Traveler community in Murphy Village. An episode of Dateline NBC prompted public outcry, followed by a decision from Attorney General Charlie Condon to form the South Carolina Traveler Crime Task Force.

A common law statute that had been on the books since South Carolina's inception allowed children as young as 12 years old to marry with parental consent.

Mr. Condon held a press conference in Aiken County on March 16 to announce plans to amend the law. He said then that common law in South Carolina ``may well provide a loophole to allow such arrangements.''

The press conference was held one day after the state task force swept through Murphy Village and arrested 14 Irish Travelers on charges of food stamp fraud, tax evasion and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The delinquency charges related only to the truancy of Traveler children from school.

Aiken County Sheriff Howard Sellers said at the time that the task force, which had conducted a six-month investigation, had been prepared to issue warrants for violation of the existing marriage laws.

However, he said the attorney general's office advised against the warrants.

The Irish Travelers are a reclusive community of itinerant workers, about 2,000, living in lavish houses and mobile homes on either side of U.S. Highway 25, between Aiken and Edgefield counties. They're descended from 19th century Irish peddlers, and some have reputations as scam artists.