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	Girl Says She Shared Bed with 'Minister' at Age 8 By Sue Montgomery Montreal Gazette April 29, 2008 http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=eb05e129-938b-4b4f-b5cc-0cd3efdf7caf&k=82062 MONTREAL - He was 47 and she was 8 when she began spending every weekend at his house, sharing a bed with him. By the time she was 9, Daniel Cormier, a self-proclaimed minister of a defunct downtown church, was having intercourse with her, the girl testified Monday at Cormier's trial. Cormier, on trial for several sex charges, claims he legally married the girl when she was 10. Speaking by video link so she wouldn't have to be in the same room as Cormier, the girl, who can't be named, told her story in a monotonal voice. Born in Nova Scotia in 1989, she never knew her father. After moving to Montreal with her mother and younger sister, the girl ended up in foster care at the age of two or three, she said. Her mother has already testified that both children were put in care after she got into drugs and prostitution in Montreal. While on the street, she met Cormier, who said he was minister at the Downtown Church of Montreal and offered to help her. Eventually, he helped her get her two daughters back from child protection and offered to care for them on weekends. "On Friday evenings, he'd pick me up and took me shopping for clothes and toys," the girl, now 18, testified. "Saturday we'd go to the park and on Sunday we'd go to church." Her younger sister didn't stay over every weekend, because Cormier didn't like her as much, the girl said. But when she did spend the night at his place, the three of them would sleep in the same bed. She said she had sex with Cormier every weekend up until the weekend before the police interviewed her on July 18, 2002. The girl was set to testify Monday morning, but Cormier, who is defending himself, delayed things in his characteristic fashion by arguing that a spouse can't be forced to testify against his or her spouse. Calling it "triple victimization," Cormier said the girl shouldn't be obliged to divulge the personal and intimate things said in their "marriage." "There are people who don't agree (with this marriage) so say, 'we're going to impose our vision'," he said. "'She was happy in this situation and we don't agree with that so we're going to intervene and see that she's unhappy'." He also argued that the fact the court assigns a lawyer to cross-examine the victim, so Cormier won't, is unconstitutional. Cormier is charged with sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation of two girls. Neither victim can be named. Contact: smontgomery@thegazette.canwest.com
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