The Crown in the trial of Peter Nygard told the jury in his opening statement that the fallen fashion mogul was a man of power who did not hesitate to seduce young women and even a teenage girl who they are all in his studio in Toronto.
The 82-year-old businessman was charged with 6 counts of sexual assault and false imprisonment. The acts for which he was accused allegedly took place from April 1986 to March 2005.
The complainants range in age from 16 to 28. They filed a complaint with Toronto police in 2021 after years of silence.
Peter Nygard is an influential person, he has built an empire and rich fortune, with his fashion house, his private jet and residences all over the world
declared by prosecutor Ana Serban.
The general plan of Peter Nygard and his son principal avocat, Brian Greenspan.
These 5 women will tell you how they met him before he raped them in his workshop on Niagara Street in Toronto.
The identities of the alleged victims are protected by a publication ban.
Me Serban, the complainant complained, summarized the fate he had inflicted on them in a hidden room in the workshop, specifying that a psychiatrist would testify about the trauma they experienced at the hands of the accused. The latter used the same modus operandi from one victim to another, according to the Crown.
1st alleged victim
Me Serban explained that the first complainant was a woman who was 26 years old at the time of the alleged facts and that Peter Nygard was 46 years old.
He was going to the Bahamas with a friend in 1998 and learned that Peter Nygard was on the same flight. He didn’t know her.
The fashion designer invited her to his residence, but she declined his offer. He then hands over his professional card.
Winnipeg fashion designer Peter Nygard recently sold his home in the Bahamas. (Archive photo)
According to the Crown, the complainant called her a few days ago when she recognized him on television. Peter Nygard gave him an appointment for an interview for a job in his workshop.
The prosecutor emphasized that Peter Nygard gave him a tour of the owner before showing him the room. She felt uncomfortable and asked him to leave.
added the prosecutor.
He then threw her on the bed, stripped her clothes and raped her
, he continued. According to the Crown, the businessman was then interrupted by an internal call at the workshop, informing him of an appointment. Then he allegedly released the 26-year-old young woman.
2nd alleged victim
The Crown maintained that the second complainant was 21 when she and her mother met Peter Nygard at a nightclub in Quebec in 1987.
Nygard, who is 47 years old, suggested that the young woman come to him in his workshop for an interview. They will meet again a month later in Toronto.
Brian Greenspan, lawyer for Peter Nygard, entered the Toronto court on September 26, 2023 for the first day of arguments in his client’s trial.
After dinner, Peter Nygard invited him to his studio. Upon entering the room, the woman noticed that a television was showing a pornographic film.
He then stabs her, as she struggles, screams and rejects his advances.
He asks her to stop, but she scolds him for being uncooperative,
he added. Peter Nygard let her get dressed afterwards before leaving her by opening the bedroom door wide open, the prosecutor said.
3rd alleged victim
The next complainant is a 26-year-old actress who met Peter Nygard in the Bahamas with a friend in 1989.
Back at Toronto Pearson Airport, he offered to drive them downtown. The boy and girl date for a few days platonically.
He then invited her to a Rolling Stones concert in Toronto. After the show, he walks her home, but suggests she stop by his studio for a nightcap.
Peter Nygard said he has lived on this Bahamian island for 40 years. He returned to the country in 2019 before being arrested in December 2020 in Manitoba.
Hearing the lock on the bedroom door behind her, the actress panicked and asked her host to leave. The Crown accused Nygard then shoved her onto the bed before tucking her in as she screamed not
.
After the rape, the Crown alleges, Peter Nygard handed her a $100 bill as she opened the door. The woman left the scene in tears and did not take the money with her.
4th alleged victim
The Crown alleges that the fourth plaintiff is a 24-year-old model who looks like Peter Nygard who returned from the Turks and Caicos Islands to Toronto in 1986.
He decided to work for the 45-year-old businessman, because the salary was good, said prosecutor Serban. He was hired for an evening at the workshop where Nygard’s guests had gathered.
However, he is uncomfortable when he realizes that an orgy is so organized that he pours himself a drink.
determines the prosecutor.
According to the Crown, the woman woke up naked in Nygard’s bed, who raped her in front of guests. After the rape, the Crown says, the complainant left, taking advantage of the departure of two other people.
The only minor in the group
The last complainant was a 16-year-old girl who attended a party after the Toronto parade in 2004. Peter Nygard was 63 at the time.
Believing that the party was going on at Peter Nygard’s house, the young woman went there willingly, but she realized that there were only two men and one woman with them. He offers her a drink.
Then he felt terrified and helpless
said Me Serban who added that the teenager was raped in bed.
He rushed to the bathroom to throw up. Leaving the room, a woman still in the workshop gave her contraceptive pill on her way out.
continues to Me Serban.
Peter Nygard’s former headquarters in Toronto. (Archive photo)
The Crown concluded its charge by saying that the five women were helpless and that they were lured by Peter Nygard under false pretenses into a room where he controlled the locking mechanism.
The first prosecution witness called by the Crown was, in fact, a police detective specializing in the forensic science of evidence relating to the configuration of a building where a crime was committed.
Abi Yusufi describes in detail the Nygard workshop as he saw it in June 2021: the floors, the entrance and exit doors, the nature of each room, the garage, the reception hall, the office and the private suite .
The goal is to mark the distances between each room and to provide the plan of the house for the purpose of the investigation.
he said.
