‘Mixed emotions’: N.B. man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted woman in 2010 released from prison

RCMP officers escort 62-year-old Romeo Jacques Cormier to court in Moncton, N.B. on Thursday, March 25, 2010. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)

The daughter of a woman who was kidnapped, confined and sexually assaulted in Moncton, N.B., in 2010 says there are “a whole bunch of mixed emotions” as the man responsible is released from prison.

“In the end, he did serve his time. He has been in there for 16 years. It has been a long time,” said the daughter, who can’t be named in order to protect her mother’s identity.

“He’s never ever shown remorse. He hasn’t really admitted to it.”

Romeo Cormier, 78, kidnapped the woman at knifepoint outside the former Highfield Square shopping mall in February 2010. He held her in his one-room basement apartment for nearly a month while he sexually assaulted her.

The woman, who was 55 at the time, managed to escape while Cormier was out of the apartment on March 24, 2010.

In 2011, a jury found Cormier guilty of kidnapping, sexual assault, forcible confinement, assault with a weapon, robbery and uttering death threats.

He was sentenced to 18 years and has been deemed a dangerous offender.

The victim’s daughter told CTV News that Cormier has been released from a prison in Quebec, but she isn’t nervous anything will happen to her mother or her family.

As for how her mother is doing, she said she still feels a lot of mixed emotions too.

“I think she’ll always be uneasy. That will never go away for her and now that he’s out, I’m sure that’s probably on her mind a little bit,” she said.

“I really feel that mom is a really strong person and her attitude was that she wasn’t going to let Romeo Cormier continue making her a victim.”

She said the trial and the sentencing was a very hard time for her mother because she had to be on the stand.

“But then once that was all over and she kind of healed from it, she did do therapy, but she hasn’t let it have an impact on her life. She’s really strong in that sense.”

In a written statement to the Parole Board of Canada in 2022, the victim stated she is still afraid of Cormier and never wants to cross his path again.

Release conditions

Documents sent to CTV News Thursday from the Parole Board of Canada state his case was reviewed on May 12, and he was granted statutory release, but several special conditions were imposed:

• Cormier must have no direct or indirect contact with the victim and members of the victim’s family;
• Cormier must return to his residence nightly with no leave privileges and he must live in a specific place, which could be a community-based or psychiatric facility approved by the Correctional Service of Canada;
• he is not to take, buy or possess drugs other than prescribed medication, and he is not to consume alcohol or enter a drinking establishment; and
• Cormier will have to follow a treatment program for violence and sexual offending, which will be arranged by a parole supervisor in the area, and he must immediately report all sexual and non-sexual relationships and friendships with women.

The duration of all conditions will remain in effect for the duration of his release.

According to the Parole Board of Canada, statutory release is a release by law and not a decision made by the board.

Victim(s) statements on file from 2011, 2022 and 2025 detail the extremely damaging and lasting impacts of Cormier’s actions on them, the documents show.

“In the victim’s most recent statements, she states that their life was forever changed, despite her determination and the therapy she has undertaken. The victim describes an overwhelming feeling of fear, severe anxiety, inability to go out in the evening, recurring nightmares and a loss of means of supporting herself, among innumerable other harms. The victim also fears that you will seek to get revenge or contact her to harm her,” state the documents.

In 2022, Cormier had served two-thirds of his sentence and was granted statutory release with special conditions.

However, he was sent back to prison for breaching those conditions.

The documents from the Parole Board of Canada show that on Sept. 8, 2022, Cormier was moved into a halfway house where he lived in the community.

Less than one month later, on Oct. 6, 2022, his statutory release was suspended because of his “hostile and violent behaviour toward various female caseworkers.”

As a result, the board revoked his statutory release on January 20, 2023.

With files from The Canadian Press

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