In a French jury on Sunday, Peter Nygard, who once dominated the children’s clothing industry, was found guilty of four counts of sexual abuse but exonerated of the second count and the cost of forced confinement.
After a six-week test in Toronto, the jury returned its decision on the second day of proceedings.
Nygard, 82, had entered a not guilty plea to all claims, which were brought against him between the 1980s and the middle of the 2000s.
Five women, whose names are protected by a publishing ban, testified that they were sexually assaulted four times while being invited to Nygard’s Toronto headquarters for reasons ranging from trips to job interviews.
Similar tales of encountering Nygard on a plane, at an airport road, or at nightclub before receiving invitations to visit headquarters were related by numerous complainants to the jury. All five of the ladies claimed that Nygard’s encounters or interactions with them resulted in physical activity that they did not agree to.
One of the plaintiffs testified that Nygard forbade her from leaving his personal set for a while, which is what prompted the accusation of forcible confinement. Others testified that they felt trapped in the collection and described how doors had to be opened using a touchscreen code or the push of buttons next to the bed.
One person testified that she was only 16 years old when she went to Nygard’s office with an older person she had been dating at the time. She claimed that while there, the man sexually assaulted her, and another person gave her an emergency contraceptive medication as she left.
Nygard denied all five of the women’s accusations in his own defense testimony at the trial, claiming he did n’t even remember meeting or interacting with four of them. No one could have ever been imprisoned in his personal suite, he insisted, and vowed not to participate in the kind of behavior alleged against him.
Prosecutors claimed at the conclusion of the trial that Nygard’s witness was evasive and uncertain and that he exhibited a pattern of behavior due to the similarities between the accounts of all five women.
The security claimed that the complainants made up a “false storyline” about Nygard and that their claims of sexual assault were prompted by an American class-action lawsuit against the company.
Nygard is still being investigated for criminal offenses in three additional states.
In separate instances in Quebec and Manitoba, he is accused of forced captivity and sexual assault, both of which date back to the 1990s. He is also being investigated in the U.S.
After being charged with nine matters in New York, including sex trafficking and criminal charges, Nygard was first detained in Winnipeg in 2020 under the Extradition Act.
Nygard may be extradited to the United States once the cases against him in Canada are resolved, according to a statement made at the time by the national justice minister.
In 1967, Nygard established a trend business in Winnipeg that would later go on to become Wygard International. The business had business locations in both Canada and the United States and produced women’s clothes under various brand names.
Following a February 2020 FBI and police raid on Nygard’s offices in New York City, he resigned as business chairman. Since then, the business has declared debt and entered into bankruptcy.