The 82-year-old founding father of one among Canada’s largest clothes manufacturers has been convicted on fees associated to incidents between 1988 and 2005.
Former Canadian style mogul Peter Nygard has been discovered responsible of 4 counts of sexual assault, a Toronto courtroom has stated.
Nygard, 82, was on trial in Ontario Superior Court docket on 5 counts of sexual assault and one rely of forcible confinement, fees associated to incidents between 1988 and 2005. The costs concerned 4 ladies and a 16-year-old woman.
The jury delivered its verdict on Sunday, the fifth day of deliberations after a six-week trial. Nygard was acquitted of sexually assaulting one of many ladies who testified on the trial.
The trial was the primary of a collection of fees he faces for intercourse crimes towards a number of ladies over many years in Canada and america.
“I do know it has been an extended and troublesome case for you,” Decide Robert Goldstein advised the jury.
Nygard’s legal professional Brian Greenspan didn’t rule out the potential of interesting the decision. Throughout closing arguments, Greenspan stated the case was constructed on “contradictions and innuendo” as he reviewed the prosecution’s portrayal of his shopper.
“To explain Peter Nygard as an evil predator, a Jekyll and Hyde character who, via wealth and energy, lured ladies into his den of iniquity and compelled ladies to conform along with his sexual calls for… is neither truthful nor correct,” he stated.
In distinction, prosecutor Ana Serban stated Nygard was evasive and inconsistent on the witness stand, and that his reminiscence was unreliable and selective.
Serban pointed to “remarkably related tales” from his 5 accusers, independently of one another, about how they met Nygard, have been invited to his workplace constructing and “how he sexually assaulted them in his non-public bed room.”
“The similarities defy coincidence,” she stated. “It is a sample of conduct.”
Testifying in his personal protection, Nygard didn’t recall assembly or figuring out 4 of his accusers, and insisted he by no means raped any of the 5.
“The type of allegations that have been made and described are the type of conduct that I do know I’ve by no means achieved and that I’d by no means do,” he advised the courtroom, at the same time as he admitted that his reminiscence had turn out to be “very unhealthy” over time. blurry” had turn out to be. .
He’ll return to courtroom for sentencing on November 21.
Nygard, who based the agency that will turn out to be Nygard Worldwide in 1967, has been in custody since his arrest in 2020.
He now faces related fees in Quebec and Manitoba. in addition to extradition to the US, the place he faces fees of sexual abuse of dozens of ladies and ladies, extortion and human trafficking.
Born in Finland, Nygard grew up in Manitoba, ultimately operating his eponymous clothes corporations and changing into one among Canada’s richest individuals.
