A New Brunswick woman who said she bore psychological scars from 26 days of torment at the hands of Romeo Cormier breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday after he was convicted of abducting and imprisoning her in his one-room basement apartment where he sexually assaulted her.
Mr. Cormier smirked and gave the woman a thumbs-up as he was led out in shackles before a courtroom packed with the woman’s family and friends.
“He’s just a man with no remorse,” the woman said outside court. “He thinks the world owes him something, and he thinks he can do what he wants and everybody has to cater to him. He thinks he’s a somebody. He’s just a mean person.”
Mr. Cormier, 63, was found guilty of kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, assault with a weapon, robbery and uttering death threats.
A five-man, seven-woman jury reached their verdict about 90 minutes after they entered their second day of deliberations in a case that shocked the province because of its almost unfathomable nature.
The 55-year-old woman – whose identity is protected by a publication ban – testified that Mr. Cormier, a complete stranger to her, grabbed her at knifepoint on the night of Feb. 26, 2010, outside the shopping mall where she worked in this city of nearly 140,000.
She said he forced her to his apartment where he sometimes gagged and sexually assaulted her until she was able to escape nearly a month later on March 24, 2010.
Mr. Cormier took the stand in his own defence, telling the jury he first met her in 1993 in Newfoundland and that they rekindled a connection of sorts in 2006 when he saw her again in Moncton.
He told the Court of Queen’s Bench that she wanted to be with him, and that on the evening of Feb. 26, 2010, they plotted together to kill her husband.
He said they went to her home that night but called off the plan after she somehow cut her hand and a car pulled into the driveway.
Mr. Cormier said she returned with him to his apartment of her own free will, where they engaged in consensual sex games.
The Crown recalled the woman to the witness stand, where she rejected Mr. Cormier’s testimony.
“All I can say is that I hope that no one else has to go through what we had to go through for the past 15 or 16 months,” the woman’s husband said Wednesday.
“It has been absolute, pure hell just to have to sit in the courtroom and to listen to some monster talk about your wife in the way that he talked about her.”
The woman became the subject of a missing persons investigation shortly after she vanished. For weeks, local and regional news outlets reported her disappearance and her family’s desperate search to find her.
The woman said it was those reports, which she watched while captive in Mr. Cormier’s home, that strengthened her will to survive the ordeal.
“I could see how hurt they were,” she said two weeks ago.
During the nearly month-long trial, the woman said Mr. Cormier threatened to kill her when he first confronted her and later introduced himself in a chilling manner.
“You’re with the devil,” she quoted him as saying in testimony that sometimes brought her to tears.
She said she feared him so much that she didn’t dare grab one of the knives in his room and attempt to flee because she felt that would further jeopardize her life.
He only left her alone three times but each time tied and gagged her, she said.
It was during that final time on March 24, 2010, when he rushed out the door to go to a food bank, that she was able to wiggle herself free, the court heard.
A neighbour and a courier truck driver testified that the woman appeared scared when they saw her run into the street wearing just a T-shirt, underwear and socks that morning. Mr. Cormier was arrested later that day.
“Emotionally and psychologically it has been hard,” the woman said Wednesday. “It is hard for me to move on to everyday things because you have this on your back that you can’t get rid of. But today, I feel a sense of release, like I can move on from here.
“I’m hoping that things are going to get back to normal and I don’t have to talk about him again.”
Following the verdict, Judge Zoel Dionne thanked the lawyers for their work on what he described as “not a popular case.”
“Defence counsel did the best they could with a case that was not easy,” Judge Dionne said.
Defence lawyer Robert Rideout – who framed the case as a classic battle of “he said, she said,” – said he believed his client received a fair trial.
“We felt we’ve given him the best defence that we could under the circumstances and that was the obligation on us as lawyers,” Mr. Rideout said outside court.
“We wanted to ensure that justice was done and I really think it was done here.”
Crown lawyer Annie St. Jacques said she hopes the verdict would also bring a measure of relief to the public.
“I hope the community is going to be satisfied,” she said. “It’s a message for all women.”
Sentencing has been set for Aug. 18.
