‘This rape has tainted my life’: Peter Nygard’s victims describe lasting pain as Crown calls for 15-year sentence

The defence countered that such a length of time would “most certainly be crushing” for Nygard due to his age and many health issues, but did not propose a sentence, as the hearing continues Thursday.

The founder of Nygard International — once the largest manufacturer of women’s clothing in Canada — was convicted by a jury last November of sexually assaulting three young women and a 16-year-old girl in the top-floor bedroom of his former Toronto headquarters at 1 Niagara St. between the 1980s and 2005. The complainants’ identities are covered by a standard publication ban.

Speaking through tears Wednesday while sitting in the witness box — the same place from where she testified at trial last year — the first complainant told the court about how the trauma of the assault led to debilitating panic attacks, preventing her from fully pursuing her career as an actress.

“This rape has tainted my life,” said the woman, whom Nygard raped after chasing her around his bedroom and tearing off her clothes after the pair came back from a Rolling Stones concert in the late 1980s.

“Testifying in court for this rape has been one of the most horrendous, difficult experiences in my life. As horrendous as the action Mr. Nygard perpetrated against me.”

Dressed in a black winter coat with a hood pulled over his head and a hospital mask over his face, Nygard watched the proceedings sitting in a wheelchair next to the third lawyer to take on his case, Winnipeg-based Gerri Wiebe. Sticking out from the hood was Nygard’s typical makeshift visor to protect his eyes from light sensitivity; court records have said Nygard makes the visors himself using paper and adult diapers provided to him in jail.

“Mr. Nygard used his wealth, his privilege, his resources, and his reputation in the fashion business and industry to his advantage,” Crown attorney Neville Golwalla told Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein in front of a full courtroom.

“This pattern should be understood for what it is. Simply put: Predatory.”

Wiebe told Goldstein about Nygard developing a “very strong survive and thrive skillset” from a young age, which led him to create a clothing empire. His success allowed him to donate millions of dollars to charities, especially for cancer research, she said. 

“The purpose of all this is to convey to you that there is a lot more to Mr. Nygard than the media frenzy that has surrounded these charges,” Wiebe told the judge, who responded: 

“You can rest assured that I’m not going to sentence Mr. Nygard based on the publicity.”

The fifth complainant, who Nygard pinned down, raped, and berated for not complying, told court via Zoom that the assault transformed a young woman with a bright and exciting future into someone who would question whether her life “should be stamped out.

“It breaks my heart to reflect upon the derailment of my entire life caused by this incident,” she said, her voice breaking.

“My life has been dominated by the event and aftershocks. Whilst my prison has no visible bars, to this day my life also exists in a confine, one formed of psychological constraints.”

An aspiring fashion designer in the 1980s, the woman had gone to 1 Niagara for what she thought was a business meeting after Nygard had called her parents’ home looking for her. He spoke to the woman’s mother, who passed along the message.

The mother said in a victim impact statement that she was “misled into leading my beautiful daughter into a trap where she was raped,” and that she lives with the guilt of dissuading her daughter from going to the police because she was worried the process would destroy her.

“I’m the mother who watched her baby girl slide into years of depression, feelings of suicide, stuttering problems, shaking, and years of fear,” the woman said in her statement, read by Crown attorney Ana Serban.

“I’m the mother who looked into her daughter’s eyes and heard the words, ‘He raped me, Mom.’”

The fourth complainant — who thought she was going to 1 Niagara for a job interview — urged Goldstein in a statement read by Serban to quickly deliver his ruling so that Nygard’s survivors can try to heal. Nygard penetrated the woman with his fingers, and was interrupted by his receptionist announcing his next appointment over the intercom.

“Having to relive and expose myself again in court has left me vulnerable and has had a huge impact on my life,” the woman said.

“I know people say ‘move on,’ as it happened years ago, but that is not realistic for sexual assault survivors. The nightmares are never-ending, not to mention the hurt and shame.”

The second complainant, who Nygard raped when she was 16 years old around 2005, declined to provide an impact statement. The woman had gone to 1 Niagara with an older man she was seeing; she testified that after the attack, another woman in the room gave her what she now believes were emergency contraceptive pills.

The jury acquitted Nygard of sexually assaulting the third complainant in the case, a woman who said she once worked for him.

Golwalla proposed a sentence of five years for each count of sexual assault involving penile penetration, and four years in the case of the fourth complainant, to be served consecutively, for a total of 19 years. But after taking into account factors including Nygard’s age, the final sentence requested by the Crown is 15 years.

Golwalla said Nygard should then be given credit of just over 33 months for his time spent in pre-sentence custody. He pointed out that despite being held in the notorious Toronto South Detention Centre, Nygard has not faced much hardship that would justify further, enhanced credit: among other things, he’s in a private suite with a specialized mattress and has access to a phone.

Wiebe argued that Nygard’s age and many health issues require a lower sentence. She took Goldstein through dozens of pages of complaints made by Nygard’s various lawyers over the years to the jail about his health and need for treatment and special accommodations. Nygard has glaucoma, Type 2 diabetes, low blood pressure, claustrophobia requiring special transportation to court, chronic pain, an enlarged prostate and allergies to polyester and strong laundry detergent, which have caused him to break out in itchy rashes due to the clothing and sheets provided by the jail. He’s largely confined to a bed and has to wear diapers. 

Wiebe said she “vehemently” disagrees with Golwalla’s suggestion that Nygard has health issues simply by virtue of being a man in his 80s; rather, he is someone who is “dramatically deteriorating” in jail. 

“Someone like Joe Biden is an octogenarian with age-related health issues,” Wiebe said. “Peter Nygard has specific health conditions that require enhanced care and treatment for him to stay alive, never mind having quality of life.”

Nygard still faces sexual assault trials in Winnipeg and Montreal, on top of the New York charges. The Toronto sentencing hearing, which was originally set for May, was rescheduled twice as new defence lawyers came and went and complained of difficulty accessing Nygard’s health records. Just last Friday, Goldstein shot down a request from Wiebe to postpone the hearing a third time.

Some of the women spoke of the agony of having to keep waiting to deliver their victim impact statements, with the fifth complainant emphasizing it took her 35 years to “stand and tell my truth” in court.

“And I did it, but not for me,” she said through tears. “I did it for the nieces, the daughters, the granddaughters, who are still here and yet to come, so that they might feel that the world is indeed a safe place.

“Sincerely, Complainant No. 5.”