'Sexual predator' Peter Nygard sentenced to 11 years for 4 counts of sexual assault
With credit for time served, Nygard will serve just under 7 years in prison
Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, who was found guilty last November of four counts of sexual assault after being accused of attacking five women in his downtown Toronto office, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
With credit for time served, Nygard, 83, will serve just under seven years in prison. In his sentencing, Toronto Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein described Nygard as a "sexual predator" and a "Canadian success story gone very wrong" who used his wealth and power to commit four sexual assaults.
Outside the courthouse, Shannon Moroney, a therapist who worked with four of the five accusers, read a statement from one of the four victims, who said they finally have closure.
"We did this to ensure every victim of sexual assault will remember this trial and feel the strength and confidence to come forward and not be threatened by social status or money," Moroney quoted the woman as saying.
Nygard sat in the courtroom wearing a black Canada Goose parka with a hood over his head. His bearded face was largely obscured by paper shields that court heard he wears around his glasses because of an eye condition that makes him sensitive to light.
Before his sentencing, Goldstein asked Nygard if he had anything to say.
"No sir," he said, quietly.
Crown attorneys who prosecuted Nygard had been seeking a 15-year sentence in a federal prison.
Nygard's lawyer, Winnipeg-based Gerri Wiebe, said after the sentencing that her client would be appealing the conviction and sentence.
They had sought a sentence of six years, but that based on his age, declining health and credit for time already served, he would actually serve just under two years. Such a sentence would have allowed Nygard to serve his time in a provincial jail.
Crown attorney Neville Golwalla, who wouldn't comment on the length of the sentence imposed on Nygard, said that what jumped out was that Goldstein, in his first paragraph of his sentencing statement, referred to Nygard as a sexual predator.
"And that is the story, that was the finding of the jury," he said. "The sentence that was passed today is reflecting that reality."
Graphic testimony
During his six-week trial, court heard graphic and disturbing testimony from all five complainants, four of whom said they were in their 20s when they say they were assaulted. One complainant said she was 16 when she alleged the attack by Nygard occurred.
The women testified that from a period of the late 1980s to around 2005, each ended up in Nygard's private bedroom suite in his downtown Toronto building, where they say he attacked, overpowered and sexually assaulted them.
Nygard was acquitted of a fifth count of sexual assault as well as a charge of forcible confinement.
Goldstein said that while he took Nygard's age and deteriorating health into account in his sentencing, there was a limit to those issues as mitigating factors.
Goldstein said while Nygard's health had obviously deteriorated while he was in custody — his medical issues include suffering from Type 2 diabetes — he could not discount "some exaggeration" on Nygard's part.
He said Nygard, to a significant degree, was the author of his own misfortune and committed these crimes when men felt they were immune from any consequence.
Goldstein said if he were to punish Nygard less harshly because he is now elderly, it would validate that immunity. He said it would also send a message that if you're rich and powerful, and your victims are vulnerable, you can "escape culpability if you hold off the day of judgment long enough."
Goldstein said he also took into account aggravating factors, which included the violence involved in the attacks, as well as the deliberate degradation of the victims, and his manipulation of them.
Another aggravating factor was the fact these assaults took place over years, meaning "he didn't moderate or change his behaviour," Goldstein said.
In custody since 2020
Goldstein said some of the letters submitted on Nygard's behalf provided limited mitigating value but were from business associates who benefitted financially from Nygard
The judge said it was obvious Nygard had encouraged the letter writers to observe that they had never seen Nygard abuse a woman. Those were "meaningless observations", Goldstein said, as most sexual offences take place in private.
As well, it's not a mitigating factor to point to the "many women he did not rape," Goldstein said.
Nygard has been in custody since he was first arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 under the Extradition Act, after he was charged with nine counts in New York, including sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
He still faces sexual assault charges in Manitoba and Quebec. None of the criminal charges against Nygard in Quebec, Manitoba or the U.S. have been tested in court, and he has denied all allegations against him.
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With files from Caitlyn Gowriluk