The Crown attorney in a high profile kidnapping and sexual assault case gave her opening statement in a Moncton courtroom today as the trial for Romeo Jacques Cormier began.
Cormier is accused of kidnapping a 54-year-old woman from a Moncton mall in February 2010 and holding her captive in a basement apartment for nearly a month before she escaped.
Crown attorney Annie St. Jacques said the woman was leaving the mall around 8:12 p.m. on February 26 and was on her way home to have dinner with her husband when she was allegedly abducted at knifepoint.
St. Jacques told the jury that Cormier put a knife to her throat, tied their arms together and then put a hood over her head before making her walk to the basement apartment.
Police launched an extensive search and she was found 26 days later when she ran in front of a courier truck in Moncton on a cold day wearing just a shirt, pants and socks.
The 63-year-old faces six charges including kidnapping, unlawful confinement, sexual assault, theft of money using violence, assault with a weapon and uttering threats in connection with the disappearance.
He has pleaded not guilty to all six charges.
The jury was shown a series of photos of the crime scene, including tape and a sock allegedly removed from her neck shortly after her escape.
Cormier, dressed in a suit with his long hair tied back in a ponytail, read through documents as an RCMP forensic technician, the first witness to be called to the stand, described pictures taken at the mall and of the woman at hospital shortly after she was found.
The defence has yet to make its opening statement.
Cormier is being tried in front of a judge and jury made up of seven women and five men. The jury selection process began Monday and because the case has received national media attention, an unprecedented 1,500 potential jurors were summoned.
"Due to the large amount of people that were showing up, we needed a facility to accommodate at least 600 to 700 people," Sheriff Michel Boudreau told CTV Monday.
Officials chose to use the Moncton Coliseum as a courtroom during the jury selection process.
St. Jacques says she's pleased with how quickly a jury was selected.
The Crown is expected to call roughly 20 witnesses to the stand throughout the trial, including the 55-year-old victim, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban.
St. Jacques said the woman will testify that she was abducted by a man at knifepoint, held in a basement apartment, and was sexually assaulted.
The trial is expected to take five weeks.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis and The Canadian Press
