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MONCTON, N.B. - A New Brunswick man accused of kidnapping a woman last year and keeping her captive in his basement apartment for almost a month says she was not held against her will and that she hatched a plan to have him kill her husband.

Romeo Cormier rejected the woman's testimony from last week, telling the jury Monday he first met the woman — whose identity is protected by a publication ban — 18 years ago, describing her as an "acquaintance" of his.

Cormier said he met the 55-year-old woman outside the Moncton mall where she worked on Feb. 26, 2010 — the night of the alleged abduction — a couple of hours before he said he was to kill her husband.

Cormier said they walked a few blocks to the rooming house where he lived.

"She had her arm around my waist and I had my arm around her shoulder," Cormier, 63, told the Court of Queen's Bench.

He said he had a .22-calibre gun with him at the time and that he told the woman not to wear anything that could be identified by the police.

He said they were planning to commit a criminal act.

"Her husband was to be deceased between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.," Cormier said.

Cormier said after they arrived at his home, they drove to her house and parked a short distance away. He said he was nervous and standing outside the husband's bedroom window.

He decided they should leave after the woman somehow cut her hand outside the house, believing she was leaving evidence, he testified.

He said a car pulled into the driveway, so they left and returned to his home where she stayed the night.

She was supposed to go home, but instead she told him, "I'm not going back there tonight," he testified.

The defence asked if she was held against her will.

"No, she was not," he replied.

Cormier told the court that later that night he became upset after contemplating the severity of what they had almost done.

"If I get caught for murder, I'll die in prison," Cormier said he told the woman.

Cormier said he only learned there was a search for the woman three days later, when they watched the suppertime TV news.

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

Cormier said there was a news report about a $25,000 reward for information on her whereabouts. But he said the woman had a "sweeter offer" because the husband had a double life insurance policy.

He said the woman reached into her purse at one point and handed him an envelope with $1,000 cash, telling him it was a down payment to show that she was serious about the alleged murder plot.

Cormier testified that money was attractive to him because he just scraped by, going to the food bank and selling drugs for cash.

He said they later conspired again to kill the husband.

He also said he had consensual sex with the woman during her time in his apartment, contradicting her testimony that it was against her will.

He said they played sex games and that she sometimes tied him up and he at one point gagged her, but he said it was all consensual.

Cormier said he first met the woman when he was a courier and had to deliver a package to Newfoundland in 1993.

He said they bumped into each other on a number of occasions in Moncton between 2006 and January 2010.

Cormier gave specific details about the meetings and chance encounters he said he had with the woman. But Judge Zoel Dionne told the jury to ignore those specifics, because the woman was never asked about them when she testified last week.

Last week, the woman testified that Cormier was a stranger to her and that the first time she saw him was when he allegedly grabbed her at knifepoint on Feb. 26, 2010. She said Cormier held her close, and at some point during their walk, he put a hooded sweatshirt over her and tied their wrists together.

The woman said Cormier threatened her and sexually assaulted her during her 26 days in captivity.

She said she had been bound and gagged, but escaped his basement apartment while he was out at a food bank on March 24, 2010.

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

Cormier appeared animated during his testimony Monday, often waving his arms and talking while his lawyer, Maurice Blanchard, tried to speak.

He accused Blanchard of pushing his testimony along too quickly.

Dionne cautioned Cormier to listen to his lawyer.

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

Cormier will continue his testimony Tuesday.