'It's not something that I would have ever done': Nygard denies sexual assault allegations at trial

WARNING: This article contains descriptions of sexual abuse.

On the second day of his testimony at his sexual assault trial, Peter Nygard was asked about some sexual acts he's been accused of committing.

The one-time Canadian fashion mogul denied them all.

"It's the kind of activity that I know I have never done and I never do," Nygard said in response to a question about one of those alleged acts.

It was that phrase or a similar version that Nygard repeatedly used when asked by his lawyer Brian Greenspan about some of the graphic and disturbing allegations the court has heard over the last weeks.

Nygard has pleaded not guilty in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement. Justice Robert Goldstein is presiding over the jury trial.

On Thursday, Greenspan asked Nygard about his interview with police in October 2021 where he was given the names and shown images of four of the five complainants. Nygard said he couldn't recall any of them.

Greenspan also asked Nygard about the testimony of two of the five complainants. It is expected he will cover the testimony of the other three complainants on Friday.

Greenspan went in chronological order of the alleged attacks, not in order of the complainants' appearance at court. This means he started with the fourth woman who testified she was attacked by Nygard in 1988.

She had told court she had met Nygard on a flight from Toronto to the Bahamas. After some brief conversations on the flight, court was told, Nygard said he liked her personality, offering her a job running part of the importing and exporting of textiles for his business and use of his place while she and her friend vacationed in the Bahamas.

Woman claims Nygard tackled her

Eventually, she said, she met with Nygard at his Toronto headquarters to talk about a possible job. She said she was given a tour and taken to his private bedroom suite. There, she testified, Nygard tackled her and sexually assaulted her. 

But Nygard said he didn't recall meeting the woman, and said he would never have offered a job to someone he had just met on a plane.

He also denied any sexual assault took place.

Greenspan went through the details of the alleged assault, asking Nygard if he had tackled the woman onto the bed.

"I never would have done that. It's not something that I would have ever done," he said.

Greenspan asked how Nygard would know this, if he can't recall meeting the woman.

"That type of act I would never have done," Nygard said. 

Asked whether he put his hand up her skirt and digitally penetrated her, Nygard said: "That type of act I know for sure that I have never done."

The second woman Greenspan referred to was the fifth woman to testify. She said she had met Nygard at a Hull, Que., club, had told him about her interest in the fashion industry and gave him her home number. She said that months later he contacted her through her mom, and arranged to meet her at his Toronto headquarters.

But once there, she said, Nygard "blindsided" her by lunging at her, pinning her to the bed. Despite repeated pleas of "No," she said he committed various sex acts on her against her will.

Under questioning from Greenspan, Nygard again said he couldn't recall who the woman was or having met her at the Hull club.

Greenspan went through the series of sex acts that the woman accused Nygard of committing against her. But Nygard denied he would ever do any of the acts she alleged.

He also denied the woman's testimony that he had refused to unlock the doors to let her out of the room.

He repeated what he said on his first day of testimony, that there wasn't any way for someone to get locked inside his private bedroom suite.

Nygard denied invite to Finland

Nygard also contradicted some of the other details the witnesses had told court. The fourth woman to testify told court that before she met Nygard at his Toronto office, he had invited her to go to Finland to celebrate his parents 50th wedding anniversary. 

Nygard denied this, and said the anniversary celebration took place in 1990 in various cities, including Toronto but not Finland. The woman also told court that Nygard had sent her flowers before their meeting. But Nygard rejected that as well, saying "it was not my habit to be sending flowers to anyone."

For the fifth complainant, Nygard disputed some of the details she used to describe the Toronto headquarters. She had described multiple TV monitors on his wall in his bedroom suite. He said that "doesn't make any sense at all" and that there was nothing like that on the fifth floor. (Nygard testified a day earlier that he did recall there were two monitors on the wall)

Greenspan also asked about the woman's testimony regarding a bed and a three-foot-wide, door-sized hole to the outside of the building that had a direct freefall from that door to the ground.

"Of course not," he said.

Earlier in the day, Nygard also denied he had "boxes and boxes" of condoms stored inside his private bedroom suite.

That contradicted the testimony of the first complainant, who had previously told court that as Nygard pinned her down on the bed inside the suite, she begged him to "put a f--king condom on."

The woman said Nygard went to a dresser in his bedroom and that she could see him grab one from an "enormous" collection of more than 50 boxes of condoms.

The woman testified that after Nygard retrieved a condom, he sexually assaulted her. 

Greenspan questioned Nygard about that dresser and condoms in his suite. Nygard told the court the dresser was behind a mirrored door and that if someone was on his bed looking over at that area, they could not see the dresser from that vantage point.

Not 'boxes and boxes' of condoms, Nygard says

"At any time, sir, did you have boxes and boxes and boxes of condoms located in your Finland suite in Toronto?" Greenspan asked.

"I did not," Nygard said.

"In terms of any condoms which you might have had, where would they have been stored?" Greenspan asked.

Nygard said there were likely some in the drawers of the dresser, but there weren't "boxes and boxes of them."

The Crown contends that in the five cases — which involve women ranging in age from 16 to their late 20s — Nygard used his power and status to lure them to his downtown Toronto office building, located at 1 Niagara St.

Once there, Nygard often provided a tour of the building, ending in his private bedroom suite, which included a giant bed, televisions on walls and a Jacuzzi, court has heard. 

It's inside that suite, the Crown alleges — backed by each of the five women who have testified — that Nygard would attack and sexually assault them.

The trial continues on Friday.