Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, 82, has been convicted of four counts of sexual assault in a Toronto court. The charges stemmed from incidents between 1988 and 2005, involving four women and a 16-year-old girl. The jury reached the verdict after five days of deliberation following a six-week trial. Nygard was acquitted of one count of sexual assault. The trial addressed the first of several charges Nygard faces for sex crimes against multiple women over several decades in Canada and the United States.
During the trial, Nygard’s lawyer disputed the prosecution’s portrayal of his client, calling the case built on “contradictions and innuendo” and insisting that Nygard was not accurately characterized as an “evil predator.” The prosecutor, Ana Serban, pointed to the remarkably similar accounts of his five accusers, saying the similarities defy coincidence and show a pattern of behavior.
Nygard, who has been in detention since his arrest in 2020, will return to court on November 21 for sentencing. He also faces similar charges in Quebec and Manitoba, as well as potential extradition to the US, where he has been accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women and girls, racketeering, and trafficking. Despite the verdict, Nygard’s lawyer did not rule out the possibility of an appeal.
The Finnish-born Nygard founded the firm that would become Nygard International in 1967 and eventually became one of Canada’s wealthiest people.