Ex-Montreal pastor gets five years in prison for sex with 10-year-old 'wife'

[moobu2]

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.

Link

[rurallib]

1. Marriage to a 10 year old??? omg

talk about self-delusion! Or did God tell him to?

[TwilightGardener]

2. How in the world were these two "married" in a ceremony without

witnesses reporting it to the police?

[MineralMan]

3. Now, that's a really good question...

[TwilightGardener]

4. Well, if they come forward now, they might be charged with a crime unless

they can be granted immunity for testifying against the old perv.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. More to the point: What does the law have to say?

In the United States, no marriage is legally valid unless A) the couple can be legally married and B) they file the appropriate civil documents with the appropriate civil authorities.

Somehow, I doubt very much that they could have been legally married, meaning (under US law, at least) the marriage never existed.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Well, no, the marriage isn't valid (judge laughed that one out of court, sounds like).

Just wondering what other pervs participated or witnessed or knew about this "ceremony", and why they aren't being rounded up.

[moggie]

7. The legality of the marriage may be an important question

But, to be honest, I can't care about that. To me, it's overshadowed by his claim that marriage excuses everything. That's not true when a thug rapes his adult wife ("she's my wife! I can screw her whether she likes it or not!"), and it's certainly not true when the "wife" is a child.

[Book Lover]

8. Correx to headline: Man gets 5 years for child rape

That's all I have on this one. I'm too busy otherwise :puke:

[laconicsax]

9. So is this the sacred institution that wingnuts want to protect from teh gay?