How a fabricated murder-for-hire plot helped trigger Peter Nygard's downfall
This Nygard survivor and a former Scotland Yard detective helped expose the accused Canadian fashion executive
WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Litira Fox was standing in the customs hall at Lynden Pindling airport in Nassau, Bahamas, shuffling along in the endless snake-like queue of weary vacation travelers, when she got a funny feeling.
It was the summer of 2015, and she had just returned from three days of clandestine meetings on a neighbouring Caribbean island.
At the time Peter Nygard was rich and powerful with deep connections to politicians and police officers in the Bahamas, where he lived part-time. But Fox knew the Canadian fashion mogul's secret: he was a rapist. And she had just shared everything she knew with a team of foreign investigators.
As Fox got closer to the front of the line at the airport, the local Bahamian police were waiting for her.
"I was really scared."
Fox's story is part of a new three-part television documentary series from CBC Docs called Evil by Design: Surviving Nygard.
The series is based on investigative reporting from The Fifth Estate and the CBC podcast Evil by Design.
It unravels the tale of how an undercover operation involving two notorious Nassau gangsters and a fabricated murder-for-hire plot led to a chance meeting between Fox and a former Scotland Yard detective. That meeting would be a key trigger in the eventual downfall of the Canadian clothing mogul, Nygard.
Fox is a Bahamian Nygard survivor who provided inside information about Nygard's decades-long reign of terror. In the process, she was arrested, jailed and interrogated by police officers. Because Nygard had connections in the highest levels of the Bahamian government, Fox wondered whether that had something to do with her detention.
"They took me to the station and they were rude, telling me stuff like, 'I'll hit you' and 'mash your effin' eye to this table,'" she said.
Then they asked if she was providing information about Nygard.
"I was like, 'Well, shit. I wonder if Peter, like, had this set up?'"
A neighbourly dispute
In 2015, Nygard was still at the helm of his successful Canadian clothing empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars and living part of every year at his sprawling seaside estate in the Bahamas.
His next-door neighbour there was hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon.
A property dispute between the two wealthy men had escalated over several years into a bitter and very public legal and PR battle that included more than a dozen lawsuits.
That same year, Damian McLoughlin got a phone call. The former Scotland Yard detective turned private investigator had been part of Bacon's security team for more than a decade.
The London-based investigator was told to pack his bag and head to the Bahamas. Two Bahamian gangsters had come forward saying Nygard had hired them to murder Bacon. They had agreed to switch sides for a fee.
"I flew down to the Bahamas to verify whether there was a real threat to life to Mr. Bacon," said McLoughlin, in his first TV interview about his role in the Nygard saga.
After about a month of investigation, which included covertly recorded meetings between the gangsters and Nygard, it became obvious the murder-for-hire plot didn't exist.
"We realized then that it wasn't really a threat to life," said McLoughlin. "Nygard didn't have an appetite for that level of violence or harm against Louis Bacon."
But then the gangsters offered to introduce McLoughlin to someone else they believed could provide damaging information about Nygard.
That's when McLoughlin met Fox. He says it was clear from the start that Fox knew Nygard well, and she was blunt: "Damian, he's a rapist."
"That's where the snowball started to happen."
By this point, McLoughlin and his team had been working in the Bahamas for a month and were concerned Nygard had discovered they were investigating him.
They needed a safe place to fully debrief Fox. If Nygard was a rapist, they needed proof. The decision was made to fly to a neighbouring Caribbean island.
Over three days, Fox told McLoughlin her story.
In the early 2000s, she was invited to a "pamper party" at Nygard's estate in the Bahamas. She and dozens of other young women and girls were treated to food, drinks and manicures. Later in the evening, Nygard made his entrance during a dance party.
"He took my hand and we started to walk. I thought we would go on a nice walk around the property and tour the place, and I thought he was gonna tell me how pretty I was, and how much he likes me, and ask me if I will be his girlfriend," Fox said, in her first TV interview.
"Like, in a decent way."
Instead, like so many before and after, Nygard led Fox to his bedroom and had sex with her. She says she was 16 or 17 years old at the time.
Fox says she didn't fight back. Nygard was offering her a way to survive.
"I had a horrible life at home. At that stage in my life, I needed help," she said.
Fox grew up in an abusive home, and now she had her own young child to care for.
"I was behind on the rent. I was hungry. I couldn't feed my son."
Nygard would pay her after their sexual encounters. He also asked her to invite other young women to his home, who he would also take up to his bedroom.
Fox maintained her connection with Nygard for six or seven years, until one day she hit her breaking point. She witnessed a young woman, in her teens, kept at Nygard's Bahamas estate for days and repeatedly assaulted by Nygard and his friends.
The teen was an orphan and Fox says Nygard paid her barely enough to feed herself.
"I just stopped going," Fox said. "That was too much for me. I didn't want to deal with it no more."
Fox would eventually introduce the private investigator, McLoughlin, to that teen, and many other Nygard survivors, who became among the first to come forward, saying they had been raped by the Canadian fashion executive.
"And that's when it started to change … there were other people willing to talk about it," said McLoughlin.
"That's where the snowball started to happen."
An end in sight
After her arrest at the airport in 2015, Fox spent nearly a week in jail. When McLoughlin learned she had been detained, he hired a lawyer and got her released.
Fox wasn't charged with anything, but the message was clear: mess with Nygard and there could be consequences. It sent a chill through their operation.
"[The women] were genuinely worried," said McLoughlin.
Fox and others have admitted they were paid to cooperate in McLoughlin's investigation into Nygard. The money, they say, was to help keep them safe. According to a report in The New York Times, Fox received $2,000 a month and a gold bracelet worth nearly $10,000.
Over the next three years, McLoughlin and his team located and spoke to 48 women in total who had been sexually assaulted or harassed by Nygard.
In 2018, their stories were passed on to the New York law firm that sued Nygard, as well as to the FBI, which eventually charged him in 2020.
Nygard is now in jail awaiting trial in Toronto, where he has also been charged with six counts of sexual assault and three of forcible confinement.
Nygard denies the allegations, which have not been tested in court.
"Of all the interesting stuff I've done before in Scotland Yard, it's possibly the most satisfying operation I've been involved in," said McLoughlin.
He and Fox have formed a bond through the experience. McLoughlin has also remained in contact with many of the other survivors.
"These ladies were brave," he said.
Today, all Fox wants is for Nygard to take responsibility for what he's done to her and so many others.
"I would really like to see him admit his wrong and apologize," she said.
In the meantime, she's focused on making her life in the Bahamas better for herself and her three children.
"I don't feel like I have the time and the leisure to just sit down and cry or feel bad about the things that already happened. I feel like my responsibility now, going forward, is to make sure that my daughters don't encounter those things."
Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. Call The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010 for more information.
Timothy Sawa, Producer, The Fifth Estate
