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Self-described pastor gets five years in prison for sex with 10-year-old ‘wife’
More articles on this topic: Church of Downtown MontrealMan headed the now defunct Church of Downtown Montreal
MONTREAL — A self-described pastor who hoped his “marriage” to a 10-year-old girl he took to bed would convince a judge to acquit him on a sexual assault charge was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday.
Daniel Cormier, who was convicted last October following a lengthy trial, has a maximum of 49 months left behind bars because of time already served.
“I would say that there’s no remorse,” Crown prosecutor Anne-Andree Charette said outside the courtroom. “He just tried to find justifications.”
The Crown wanted the maximum prison term of 10 years, while a lawyer Cormier hired for sentencing arguments recommended between 30 months and four years behind bars, given Canadian jurisprudence.
The 57-year-old head of the now defunct Church of Downtown Montreal, who also once ran for mayor, has maintained he is not a pedophile and that he did nothing wrong as the pair were married during a ceremony at his obscure evangelical church in 1999.
Court heard he was lovestruck for the youngster.
During the trial, Quebec court Judge Sylvie Durand announced she would not hear testimony supporting his marriage defence.
The victim, who is now 19, testified she was too young to grasp the idea of marriage. She denied ever entering a union with him, but said she remembered the sexual abuse in vivid detail.
[...]Cormier is currently on trial in another case involving a 16-year-old girl and could face additional jail time if convicted.
The alleged crimes, which Cormier denies committing, also date back to his time as a pastor.
Child’s ‘husband’ sentenced to 5 years
Daniel Cormier never really grasped the notion that not only is it morally wrong to marry a 10-year-old girl, it is legally impossible.
The self-proclaimed pastor defended himself from the moment he was charged in 2003 with sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation of two girls. He even earned a law degree during the long, drawn-out legal process.
It finally came to an end yesterday when Quebec Court Judge Sylvie Durand sentenced him to five years in jail after finding him guilty of sexually assaulting a minor in October.
[...]Durand said Cormier – who ran for mayor of Montreal in 2001 and operated the now defunct Church of Downtown Montreal, which claimed to help the homeless – preyed on the vulnerability of the girl, whose father wasn’t involved in her life.
[...]He argued his sexual relations with the girl were legal because he married her in the church that he invented when she was 10.
The girl, who is now 19, remembered going to the Granby Zoo for her 11th birthday and Cormier telling her then that she was his wife.
[...]In sentencing Cormier, Durand said she took into account the age of the victim, the frequency of the assaults, the fact there was sexual intercourse and that Cormier abused his position of trust.
Cormier’s second trial, on charges of sexually assaulting the younger girl, resumes Feb. 23.
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