The Peter Nygard trial in Toronto started hearing arguments on Tuesday (27), with assistant prosecution attorney Ana Serban outlining the defendant’s modus operandi with his multiple alleged victims.
The procescution alleges he leveraged his wealth, his assets and status over several years, luring young women and girls to a top-floor bedroom suite at his company’s Toronto headquarters where he forced himself on them.
Born in Finland, Nygard grew up in Manitoba, where he founded the now-defunct Nygard International brand, in 1967.
The 82-year-old alleged serial rapist attended his court date sporting a suit with no tie, tinted glasses and with his long white hair tied back.
Associated Press reports:
“Nygard invited all five complainants in the case — whose identities are protected by a publication ban — to visit his custom-built office building under pretenses ranging from tours to job interviews, with all the encounters ending in the bedroom suite, the prosecution said. There, he sexually assaulted them at different times, sometimes trapping or intoxicating them, the prosecution alleged in opening arguments.
‘Five women, it took them years to come forward. 1 Niagara St., a custom-design office building with huge letters on the front: Nygard. The Toronto headquarters of a fashion empire’, assistant prosecution attorney Ana Serban said.
‘But within these walls, behind all the trappings of success and power, there is a bedroom suite with a giant bed, a stone Jacuzzi, a bar and doors — doors with no handle, doors with automatic, keypad-operated locks controlled by Peter Nygard’.”
Nygard has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement, in allegations that go back from the ’80s to mid-2000s.
Women were invited to his fancy 1 Niagara St. company HQ for a job interview, court heard, but there was always a hidden agenda.
“’It ends in his top-floor bedroom suite. She grows uncomfortable, she tries to leave. He tackles her onto the bed, puts his full body into it, pins her down on her back and tries to undress her, rips her clothing’, Serban, the assistant prosecution lawyer, alleged.
In their opening arguments on Tuesday, prosecutors akkeged that Nygard met women in social settings and invited them to the headquarters of his clothing empire in Toronto.
But the ‘tours’ ended in his bedroom suite, with a bed, televisions and a Jacuzzi. The doors didn’t have handles, the locks controlled by Nygard.
The Guardian reported:
“In one case, Nygard, who was in his 40s, met a woman in her 20s on a flight to the Bahamas, where he owned a sprawling estate, said Ana Serban, a crown lawyer. Nygard later invited her for a job interview at his Toronto office. When they ended up in the bedroom, she tried to leave.
He ‘tackles the woman onto the bed, puts his whole body into it, pins her down on her back and tries to undress her against her will’, said Serban. “She’s terrified.”
The alleged victim ran out of the building, after the traumatic ‘job interview’ at an office building.
Nygard is also facing charges in other jurisdictions in Canada, and is set to be extradited to the United States to faces sex-related charges, once his criminal cases in Canada are completed.
“In 2020, US authorities charged him with racketeering and sex trafficking, alleging decades of crimes with dozens of victims in the United States, the Bahamas and Canada.
Fifty-seven women – including 18 Canadians – have joined that lawsuit, which alleges that Nygard used violence, intimidation, bribery and company employees to lure victims and avoid accountability for decades. Nygard has denied all allegations.”
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