Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard was sentenced to 11 years in prison by an Ontario judge after being found guilty on four counts of sexual assault.
Nygard received a sentence of 3.5 years on one of the convictions and 2.5 years on each of the other three charges. Prosecutors had been seeking a total of 15 years.
“Peter Nygard is a sexual predator,” Justice Robert Goldstein of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice said as he outlined his reasons for the rejecting the disgraced former executive’s request for a more lenient six-year sentence. Nygard, the judge said, used his wealth and power to prey on women, then used aggressive tactics and degrading language that left his victims humiliated.
Nygard, 83, was wheeled into court wearing a black jacket with a black hood pulled over his head. He was given a chance to speak in court, but declined.
Nygard faced six different criminal charges in a trial last year. A jury in Toronto convicted him in November of assaulting a number of women, beginning in the 1980s. He was found not guilty on one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.
The women accusing Nygard ranged in age from 16 to their late 20s at the time the attacks took place. The prosecution alleged Nygard had used his wealth and influence in the fashion industry to lure women to his company’s Toronto headquarters, where he assaulted them. Nygard met some of the women on trips to the Bahamas.
Nygard’s sentencing was delayed as he turned over his legal team. During the trial he was represented by Brian Greenspan, who spent weeks challenging the women on their accusations during cross examinations. He quit in January, citing ethical reasons.
Toronto attorney Megan Savard, known for representing musician Jacob Hoggard in a sexual assault trial, took on Nygard’s case until she, too, resigned. Nygard is now being represented by Gerri Wiebe, who told reporters her client will appeal the sentence. She will represent him on criminal charges he faces in the province of Manitoba, she said.
In 2020, Nygard was arrested in Winnipeg on US charges that he trafficked women and girls for sex over a period of 25 years, and the following year he agreed to US extradition on those charges.
He’s been in jail for years and will be given credit for time already served, making him eligible for full parole in 27 months.
Nygard founded Nygard International in the 1960s, which grew to be one of the largest Canadian-owned sellers of women’s clothing. It filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2020.
(Updates with more information from court ruling, beginning in the third paragraph, and information on Nygard’s planned appeal.)
