Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard was found guilty of sexual assault and forcible confinement\u00a0on the first day of his trial\u00a0at the Montreal courthouse on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning, Mr. Nygard\u2019s trial was due to begin for a period of 10 days,\u201d Crown prosecutor J\u00e9r\u00f4me Laflamme told reporters afterward. \u201cMr. Nygard chose \u2014 without pleading guilty \u2014 to not offer a defence against the evidence the prosecution was going to present against him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge consequently declared Nygard guilty of the two charges against him, Laflamme said.<\/p>\n
The 84-year-old founder of the now-defunct women\u2019s clothing company Nygard International was charged in the Montreal case in 2022, with the offences alleged to have occurred between Nov. 1, 1997 and Nov. 15, 1998. The complainant, who was a model at the time, was in her late teens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During a preliminary hearing in January 2025, a Quebec Superior Court judge declared there was enough evidence for a trial to go forward. At the time, Nygard\u2019s defence team confirmed Nygard wanted a trial before a judge alone.<\/p>\n
The trial in Montreal came as Nygard is also facing charges outside of Canada.<\/p>\n
U.S. authorities have sought his extradition in a nine-count indictment filed in New York. Nygard is accused of being involved in illegal activity for the purpose of sexually abusing and trafficking women and underage girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing keeping Mr. Nygard in Canada is this case. So when this case is over, (Nygard) will be extradited to the United States,\u201d Laflamme told reporters Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The prosecution had been ready to move forward with the trial in Montreal, he added, saying witnesses had been prepared.<\/p>\n
Nygard\u2019s lawyer Gerri Wiebe confirmed this case was the \u201clast matter\u201d holding him in Canada. She also said her client \u201cdoes not want to go to the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, by entering the plea here today and postponing the sentence for a rather lengthy period of time, he is ensured he can remain in Canada for the next couple of months while we attempt to have the minister review the detention order based on Mr. Nygard\u2019s age and declining health,\u201d Wiebe told reporters outside the courtroom.<\/p>\n
Nygard will turn 85 on July 24.\u00a0His next appearance in the Montreal case is expected in October, according to TVA.<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Gazette later Monday, Wiebe said Nygard decided to \u201center into a plea bargain in order to remain in Canada while he seeks a reconsideration of his extradition order.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added that Nygard\u2019s defence \u201cwas able to provide the prosecution with evidence that substantially weakened the likelihood of his conviction at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the proceedings,\u00a0Nygard has appeared by video conference from a penitentiary in Ontario, where he is serving time in a separate case. In September 2024, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he was found guilty on four counts of sexual assault in Toronto for offences from the 1980s to the mid-2000s.\u00a0In May<\/a>, Nygard\u2019s appeal was rejected\u00a0by Ontario\u2019s top court.<\/p>\n He was also facing similar charges in Manitoba. The judge stayed all charges in the Winnipeg sexual assault case last October after finding Nygard\u2019s charter right to a fair trial was violated, citing police \u201cfailing to retain records related to allegations stemming from the 1990s,\u201d\u00a0according to the CBC<\/a>. In April, he filed a lawsuit alleging abuse of process and defamation in that case.<\/p>\n DiCello Levitt, a U.S. law firm representing dozens of complainants \u2014 including the woman in the Montreal case \u2014 in a civil lawsuit against Nygard, welcomed Monday\u2019s ruling, saying it \u201cmarks another measure of accountability.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThis conviction is an important step, but our work is far from over. We will not rest until Nygard and those who enabled him are held fully accountable for the harm they caused,\u201d lawyer Greg Gutzler said in a statement.<\/p>\n Paul Cherry of The Gazette contributed to this report.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard was found guilty of sexual assault and forcible confinement\u00a0on the first day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,222407,2338],"class_list":["post-800238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-crime-and-law","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800238","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=800238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}