This is a preverse practice to marry a little girl to an old man.
By Jonathan Montpetit, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - A preteen girl was clueless during years of sexual abuse by the leader of a fringe Christian church that he had claimed her as his wife, a Quebec court heard Thursday.
Now 18, the alleged victim testified she was too young at the time to understand Daniel Cormier’s designs for a married life together.
“He said that I was his wife,” said the woman, who cannot be identified. “At the time it didn’t click. It went in one ear and out the other.”
She later added that she “didn’t really understand what (Cormier) meant” when he talked of marriage or engagement.
The Crown produced a paper, signed by Cormier’s right-hand man at the now-defunct Church of Downtown Montreal, that stated the couple was married on her 10th birthday.
But all she remembers of that birthday in 1999 was a trip to the Granby Zoo.
“I do not consider myself his wife,” she said, fidgeting with a pair of sunglasses. “I don’t consider myself married in any way.”
Cormier, 39 years her senior, stands accused of a variety of sex-related crimes, including sexual exploitation and sexual assault. He is also charged with sexually exploiting another girl, aged 16.
He denies the allegations regarding the 16-year-old, but says the marriage gave him the right to have sex with the witness who testified Thursday.
“He already considered us married,” she said. “But he said we were going to get legally married when I was 16.”
Last week, the woman’s mother - an ex-drug addict and prostitute - told the court that Cormier helped take care of her family when they moved to Montreal in 1993.
The alleged victim acknowledged she originally thought Cormier was a “nice person” who bought her clothes and gave her money.
She testified Thursday that Cormier began touching her when she was around nine years old.
“After a while he started touching more,” she said.
“He tried putting his penis inside me but never for very long. After a while he would start going for longer.”
While she couldn’t recall exactly how old she was during the alleged incidents, she indicated it was well before she started menstruating.
The woman refuses to appear in the same courtroom as Cormier and she testified via video link from an adjacent room, her eyes often averting the lawyers in the room.
The arrangement has been the object of much debate during the proceedings, which have dragged on for five years.
Cormier is defending himself but so far has been barred from cross-examining this witness.
He turned down an offer to submit a list of questions to a court-appointed lawyer.
“A cross-examination can’t limit itself to a prepared list of questions,” said Cormier, who since his arrest in 2003 has been taking law courses at a Montreal university.
“It can’t simply be the work of a parrot.”
Quebec court Judge Sylvie Durand will rule Friday on how the cross-examination will proceed.
Copyright © 2008 Canadian Press
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