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	Jailed 'Pastor' Gets 9 More Months for Sex Abuse By Sidhartha Banerjee Toronto Sun March 8, 2010 http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/08/13152776.html CANADA, MONTREAL — She was just a 16-year-old teen, admittedly timid and naive, dealing with the trappings of a troubled childhood and problems with her father. Enter Daniel Cormier, a charismatic minister who held incredible sway and whose word was as good as gold. Or so she thought. The impressionable girl's trust was exploited relentlessly by Cormier, a Quebec court judge said Monday as he sentenced the former preacher to nine months for sexually abusing the teenager. Cormier claimed she was in love with him. "The exploitation by the accused of the naivety of the victim was persistent and planned," said Quebec court Judge Claude Leblond. Cormier, a self-described Montreal pastor, was already serving time for sexually assaulting a minor he claimed was his child bride. The nine-month sentence handed down in a Montreal courtroom on Monday will run consecutively to the five-year prison term Cormier received in January 2009. Cormier was convicted of sexually molesting the teen when she was 16- and 17-years-old. She was a parishioner and volunteer at his now-defunct Church of Downtown Montreal. He was found guilty of two counts of sexual exploitation against a minor after the judge agreed with the evidence that a succession of abuse had developed over months. The cases against Cormier have been winding their way through the legal system since social workers intervened in 2002 in the case of a 10-year-old girl he'd claimed as his wife. The marriage was kept hidden from the mother of the pre-teen girl. The young girl didn't understand marriage but was able to recount the assaults in vivid detail. Cormier was arrested in 2003 after a social worker alerted police about the situation. Cormier, 58, was convicted of sexually assaulting the 10-year-old girl he'd claimed as his bride after a ceremony at the church. He insisted he was innocent and that his young victim was in love with him. The assaults against the 16-year-old victim took place before those against the pre-teen, spanning a two-year period between 1993 and 1995. Leblond noted in his sentencing Monday that the teenage girl viewed Cormier as a sort of guru. Cormier did not testify in the case and did not express any remorse throughout the trial. "He hadn't testified during his trial which is his right," said Crown prosecutor Anne Gauvin. "But he could have said something during his (sentencing hearing) and he did not so the judge could not consider remorse." Cormier will enrolled in the sex offender registry and required to provide a DNA sample. Gauvin had argued for a sentence of up to 18 months, but had been steadfast that the sentence be a consecutive one for the former leader of a fringe evangelical movement. "A consecutive sentence assures the public that the crime committed is being punished," she said outside the courtroom.
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