In a shocking turn of events Monday, Romeo Cormier told his kidnapping and sexual assault trial that not only did he know the woman he is accused of abducting, but the two were planning to kill the victim's husband.

In words that contradicted his alleged victim's testimony, Cormier took the stand in his own defence and told a Moncton court that he first met the 55-year-old woman -- whose identity is protected by a publication ban -- in 1993 in Newfoundland, where he was making a delivery for his work as a courier.

Cormier testified that years later, the two reconnected again at a restaurant at Moncton's Highfield Square Mall, from where he is accused of abducting the woman on the night of Feb. 26, 2010.

He said the two frequently met at his apartment in a rooming house, and told court that on the night of the alleged abduction, he was carrying a gun when he met the woman outside the mall. Their plan, he said, was to kill the woman's husband.

"Her daughters have moved away, her husband was retired and was a drunk," Cormier said the woman told him.

He later added: "Her husband was to be deceased between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m."

Cormier said he and the woman planned to meet at the mall, and he had instructed her not to wear clothing that would identify her.

He said the woman walked with him to his rooming house with "her arm around my waist, and I had my arm around her shoulder."

He said the two drove to the woman's home and lurked outside. However, he said they had to leave because the woman cut her hand and he believed her blood could be used as evidence.

Instead of going home, Cormier said the woman told him, "I'm not going back there tonight." Cormier said the woman spent the night at his house. When he was asked if she was there against her will, Cormier said, "No."

According to Cormier, the two spent weeks smoking marijuana and having sex.

Cormier is accused of abducting the woman at knifepoint outside Highfield Square and holding her captive in the basement of a rooming house for 26 days, much of the time bound and gagged.

In his earlier testimony, the accused said the woman was one of many people he spent time with on the day they met in Newfoundland.

During her testimony last week, the woman stated she'd never met Cormier, 63, before the kidnapping. She described being held captive in his apartment for nearly a month, where she was sexually assaulted and threatened. The woman said he only left her alone three times over the 26 days, including on March 24, when she escaped.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Before Cormier's testimony, a defence witness who lived above the accused spoke of hearing a female voice in the basement apartment during the time the woman was missing.

"I thought Romeo must have picked up a chick," Terry Devine told the court, saying he didn't think anything was too unusual at the time.

Cormier said Monday he was unaware that police and the woman's family were searching for her until three days after they went to his apartment, as they watched the evening news.

"The news comes on and there she is," he told the court. "I'm in the middle of this."

Cormier said they noticed there was a $25,000 reward for information about the woman. However, she had a "sweeter offer" with her husband's double life insurance policy. He said the woman gave him $1,000 in cash to prove she was serious about killing her husband.

Cormier also acknowledged that sometimes he bound and gagged the woman, but only during consensual sex games.

Outside court on Monday, the woman's daughter said her mother has changed since the events of last year.

"You see the kind of sense of panic and alarm on her face," she told CTV News. "She doesn't want to be left alone, and she definitely would never go anywhere by herself anymore."

During Cormier's testimony Monday, the judge asked his defence lawyer to reign in his client, who spent much time rambling nonsensically.

"I'm very hyper," Cormier told the judge. "I feel like everyone's rushing me to the finish line."

Cormier has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, assault with a weapon, theft and uttering death threats.

Cormier returns to the stand Tuesday.

With files from CTV's Atlantic Bureau Chief Todd Battis, CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis and The Canadian Press