Peter Nygard, the former head of a prominent women’s fashion brand, was convicted on four counts of sexual assault by a Canadian court on Sunday. However, he was acquitted of one additional sexual assault charge and a charge of forcible confinement. The jury delivered their decision after six weeks of trial and five days of deliberation in Toronto.
Nygard, 82, had denied all allegations, which dated back to incidents from the 1980s to the mid-2000s. During the trial, five women, protected by a publication ban on their identities, testified against Nygard. They recounted being invited to Nygard’s Toronto headquarters under various pretexts, including tours and job interviews. According to their testimonies, each visit concluded in a top-floor bedroom suite where four of them were sexually assaulted.
The complainants shared strikingly similar experiences of meeting Nygard in diverse settings and subsequently being invited to his headquarters, where they claimed to have endured non-consensual sexual activities.
One complainant, who led to the forcible confinement charge, testified about being held in Nygard’s private suite against her will. Others described feeling trapped, citing doors that required keypad codes or buttons near the bed for opening.
In a particularly distressing testimony, one woman claimed she was sexually assaulted by Nygard at the age of 16. Nygard, taking the stand in his defense, denied these accusations, asserting he never met four of the complainants and firmly refuted the alleged conduct.
Prosecutors in the trial argued that Nygard’s testimony was evasive and unreliable, pointing out the pattern in the complainants’ similar accounts. In contrast, the defense suggested the allegations were part of a “false narrative” motivated by a class-action lawsuit in the United States against Nygard.
Besides the Toronto charges, Nygard faces additional legal battles. He is charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement in Quebec and Manitoba, related to incidents from the 1990s. In the U.S., he faces charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. Nygard was arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 and is set to be extradited to the U.S. after the conclusion of his Canadian cases.
Nygard, who founded Nygard International in Winnipeg in 1967, stepped down as chairman following FBI and police raids on his New York offices in 2020. Subsequently, his company filed for bankruptcy and entered receivership.
