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	Victim's Apology Sent to Accused By Sam Pazzano Toronto Sun October 31, 2008 http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2008/10/31/7259266-sun.html A parishoner, who testified that a United Church minister engaged her in a lengthy sexual relationship under the guise of counselling, wrote an apology letter to him and his wife, court heard yesterday. Rev. William Major is alleged to have masturbated, had oral sex and fondled her for several years during counselling sessions aimed at dealing with the woman's childhood sexual abuse. Major also had intercourse once with the witness. Major, now 65, has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman from Jan. 1, 1996 to Dec. 20, 2005. But the physical intimacy between Major and the witness ended after Major's wife Doris cancelled the counselling sessions in the spring of 2002. The woman, who was friends with the Majors, explained why she wrote the letter of apology. PLEADS IGNORANCE "I felt Doris was the person who ended the counselling and so I apologized, but I didn't know what I had done wrong," the woman told Crown attorney Jennifer Gibson about the letter dated May 28, 2002. The witness said she often wrote "love" in humorous cards for Major and his wife but the witness said she never intended it to mean "sexual love." Major and the woman kept their relationship alive through phone contact for several years after the counselling sessions stopped in 2002, she told Madam Justice Elizabeth Stewart in the judge-alone trial. The witness, now 54, said she sought Major for counselling at Manor Road United Church in the 1990s due to the psychological scarring of her childhood abuse. "I could not feel love for adults. But I deeply loved my four children," said the mother of four. Major started by hugging the woman, then kissing her on the cheek and later taught her how to masturbate, court heard. The trial continues today.
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