Disgraced Canadian fashion executive Peter Nygard was found guilty Sunday of sexually abusing four women in a secret bedroom inside his offices in Canada.
Nygard, 82, who wore a black parka in court, showed no emotion as the jury convicted him of four counts of sexual assault in the sickening attacks on victims as young as 16 over a span of more than two decades in Toronto, Canadian radio reported. The Corporation reported.
The creepy designer, who still faces criminal and civil cases in New York and other parts of Canada, was convicted largely on the testimony of his accusers at the six-week trial, according to the report.
“This is a crime that normally occurs in private and deeply affects human dignity,” prosecutor Neville Golwalla said after the verdict.
“Standing up and recounting such indignities in a public forum like a court is never easy and requires a lot of courage,” Golwalla said. “Everyone who showed up here is worthy of praise.”
Nygard was acquitted of a fifth count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.
Five other sexual assault charges were dismissed before five days of jury deliberations that ended with Sunday’s verdict.
Former Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault in Toronto on Sunday. He still faces criminal charges and a class-action lawsuit in New York. Jaakko Avikainen/Shutterstock Nygard, 82, spent five days on the witness stand in his six-week sexual assault trial in Toronto. But so did his accusers, and on Sunday a jury found him guilty of four counts of sexual assault.
Nygard was accused of using his wealth and influence to lure his victims to the top-floor dormitory complex, where he cornered them and sexually assaulted them, prosecutors said.
The teenage victim claimed she was raped in front of others, while another accuser said Nygard paid her $100.
During the trial, two of the accusers testified that the designer gave them a tour of his offices that ended inside his bedroom and described a mirrored door that led to the room.
Once inside, they discovered that the door had no handle, so they couldn’t get out.
The businessman, who spent five days on the witness stand during the trial, denied the allegations and claimed he did not even remember four of the five women he was accused of sexually assaulting.
Crown prosecutor Neville Golwalla (left), prosecutor in the sexual assault case against former fashion mogul Peter Nygard, said the victims’ testimony was key. “Everyone who showed up here is to be commended,” he said. AFP via Getty Images
His attorney, Brian Greenspan, said the prosecution’s case was riddled with “fatal flaws” and questioned the credibility of his client’s accusers.
“What never happened were the sexual assaults described by each of the complainants,” he told the jury.
The jury did not agree.
“It was not an easy case,” Golwalla told reporters outside the court.
“To hear the jury’s verdict is to understand that they worked very hard to reach the result,” he said. “And we certainly believe that what the jury came up with in the end was a fair result.”
The verdict is just the beginning of the legal challenges facing the controversial clothing designer, who also faces charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement in Manitoba and Quebec.
Peter Nygard’s son Kai Nygard said after his father’s sexual assault conviction in Toronto on Sunday that he “had a different version of him” in the past. But he added: “There’s something wrong in there. There is something perverse.” AFP via Getty Images Nygard still faces sexual assault charges in Manitoba and Quebec, and criminal and civil cases in New York City following his criminal conviction in Toronto on Sunday. AFP via Getty Images
He is also fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces charges in the Big Apple that include sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit extortion and transportation of a minor for the purpose of prostitution.
In addition, Nygard is also named in a class-action lawsuit filed in New York on behalf of 57 women who claim they were sexually abused as early as 1977, some when they were only 14 and 15 years old.
Outside court on Sunday, the designer’s son, Kai Nygard, who previously spoke out against his father, reflected on the verdict.
“I loved my father,” he told reporters. “It hurts me to see all these things. I met a different man. I got a different version of him and for me that bond was real, those moments were real.
“There’s something bad in there,” he added. “There is something perverse.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn