Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard (left to right), the court clerk, Nygard's lawyer Brian Greenspan, Justice Robert Goldstein and jurors are seen in a court illustration made in Toronto, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. A woman who has accused Nygard of sexual assault is set to continue her testimony at his Toronto trial today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould
TORONTO – A woman who has accused Peter Nygard of sexual assault is set to continue her testimony at his Toronto trial today.
She testified yesterday that she called the former fashion mogul after her alleged rape because she felt she had made an enemy of a powerful figure in the industry she was trying to break into.
She says she doesn’t remember much about the conversation but recalls Nygard being angry on the phone.
Nygard, the founder of a now-defunct international women’s clothing company, is accused of using his position in the fashion industry to lure women and girls.
The 82-year-old has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in alleged incidents ranging from the ’80s to mid-2000s.
The fifth and final complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, alleged Nygard flew her to his Toronto office under the guise of helping with her designer aspirations, but what she thought would be a business meeting turned into a attack.
She says she ran into Nygard again more than a decade later at a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, where she confronted him about the alleged attack, which she says brought her close to attempting suicide in the years after.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2023
