Bailey McCourt murder accused charged with breaching no-contact order

James Plover, the estranged husband of Bailey McCourt and the man accused of killing her in Kelowna last year, has been charged with one count of failing to comply with a no-contact order.

The BC Prosecution Service says the alleged breach occurred Sept. 24 in Pitt Meadows. Plover was charged April 30 and appeared in court on the matter Wednesday.

Plover faces a first-degree murder charge in McCourt’s death after she was fatally injured in a hammer attack in a parking lot on July 4, 2025. He was arrested the following day. His murder trial is expected to begin in September and last about two months.

He also faces a dangerous-driving-causing-bodily-harm charge involving a second victim on the day McCourt was attacked. Hours before the attack, Plover had been released on $500 bail after being convicted in a separate case involving assault by strangling and uttering threats; the victims’ identities in that case are protected by a publication ban.

Bailey’s Law, named after McCourt, received royal assent last month. The law makes first-degree murder applicable to killings committed as part of a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct, whether or not the act was premeditated.