A Court of Quebec judge in Montreal has found fashion mogul Peter Nygard guilty of sexual assault and forcible confinement.<\/p>\n
The 84-year-old, who founded the now-defunct women\u2019s apparel company Nygard International, accepted a plea deal and did not present any evidence in his defence Monday. He appeared via video call from an Ontario prison.<\/p>\n
The Quebec case is separate from Nygard\u2019s conviction in Toronto, where he was found guilty in 2023 of four counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 11 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Quebec Crown prosecutor J\u00e9r\u00f4me Laflamme said Nygard\u2019s plea was unexpected and he was prepared for a 10-day trial before a judge only.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Nygard\u2019s change of heart was quite sudden,\u201d Laflamme told reporters at the courthouse after the hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plaintiff is present in the courthouse. She\u2019s been prepared to testify \u2026 and I can\u2019t wait to go meet her and explain her the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evidence presented by the Crown, which the defence did not contest, showed Nygard took advantage of his position as a renowned fashion designer to lure young women.<\/p>\n
It says the victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, met Nygard in a bar when she was 18 years old. She wanted to be a fashion model.<\/p>\n
They met for lunch at her workplace to discuss her career and he invited her to his Montreal penthouse, saying he had forgotten his keys. Once in the penthouse, he locked her in the bedroom and sexually assaulted her.<\/p>\n
According to the court documents, Nygard told the victim she could move to the Bahamas and promised her a life of luxury under the condition that she would have sex with him and other women.<\/p>\n
The events took place between November 1997 and November 1998.<\/p>\n
Quebec prosecutors charged Nygard in 2022 with one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.<\/p>\n
Court of Quebec Judge Nathalie Fafard accepted to include the previous guilty verdict out of Toronto in the evidence as \u201cit would defy coincidence or any other innocent explanation for both events having happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerri Wiebe, Nygard\u2019s lawyer, said her client invited the judge to find him guilty ahead of his pending extradition to the United States to face racketeering and sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n
Fafard agreed to delay sentencing until Nygard undergoes a medical assessment.<\/p>\n
Wiebe said the United States can only extradite Nygard once his legal matters in Canada are settled. She added that by postponing the sentence, it\u2019s ensured that Nygard can remain in the country.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office alleged the charges involved at least dozens of victims in the United States, the Bahamas and Canada.<\/p>\n
U.S. authorities alleged that over a 25-year period, Nygard used his fashion company\u2019s influence, employees and funds to recruit and use women and girls for his sexual gratification and that of friends and business associates.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving him to the United States at this point in time would have a detrimental effect on his health,\u201d Wiebe said.<\/p>\n
She said Nygard is feeble and fears he wouldn\u2019t survive extradition.<\/p>\n
Lawyers will be back in court on Oct. 2 to present a joint recommendation for sentencing.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Court of Quebec judge in Montreal has found fashion mogul Peter Nygard guilty of sexual assault and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-799859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}