The third plaintiff in Peter Nygard's trial claims she was sexually assaulted by the designer in 1996 in her former workshop when she was unknowingly invited to an orgy.
WARNING: This article may be offensive to some readers.
82-year-old Canadian accused of violating 1986 to 2005 five Toronto women aged 16 to 28 at the time of the alleged offences.
The plaintiff, who cannot be identified, explains that she met Peter Nygard in March 1996 on a plane in the Caribbean returning from a photo shoot where she was accompanied by her boss.
She explains that Peter Nygard invited her and her boss for dinner on his private island in the Bahamas and that he asked them to stay two more days, rather than return to Toronto.
He only talked about himself at dinner and his fashion empire, he estimated his fortune at $700 million, remembers the woman who was 24 at the time. Even though she is impressed, she decides not to return for dinner the next day and decides to stay alone at her hotel.
We understand in the &x27; interrogation by the Crown that she refuses to explain her reasons on this subject.
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Peter Nygard's private island in the Bahamas.
The complainant explains that Peter Nygard called her three months later in Toronto to ask her to work for one of his shows at Massey Hall and that she accepted his offer despite her busy schedule.
The woman asked him for $500 in cash. I didn't trust him, so there was no question of accepting a check, she says.
Elle adds that Peter Nygard called her back a few weeks later, in September 1996, to ask her to work this time as a caterer at his fashion atelier in Toronto during a private party. She consents.
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Peter Nygard's former headquarters in Toronto with the private apartments on the fifth floor.
< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hNZoeU">She specifies that 20 people were in the building when she arrived at midnight. She claims that when she entered, she refused to sign a waiver which she said she had not read, but that Peter Nygard asked the receptionist to let her in anyway.
According to the plaintiff, half of the guests had gone up to the 5th floor to the designer's private suite when he asked her to order Chinese food.
The door to the suite was camouflaged by a large mirror and the accused controlled the opening mechanism remotely, she recalled, adding that pornographic films were projected on televisions.
I was making cocktails and laying out Chinese food in the kitchenette of the suite, when I saw people undressing and initiating sexual relations.
A quote from Complainant No. 3
Panicked, the woman, then dressed in a cat suit, said she poured herself two vodkas. I don't remember anything after that, she continues.
She explains that she woke up naked on the bed and that Peter Nygard was assaulting her in the middle of seven or eight guests forming a circle around them.
He couldn't get an erection, so he couldn't penetrate me, she recalls. The woman claims she told her to stop and get up before she went to the bathroom to pull herself together.
He kept yelling at me, she said.
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Peter Nygard on an unspecified date at his residence in the Bahamas.
She explains that she got dressed, but that she had to wait for Peter Nygard to open the bedroom door to let a couple leave in order to take the opportunity to run away, because she wanted to go home.
She maintains that she never revealed the rape to anyone. My mother always told me to keep quiet to keep the peace, she assures.
She maintains that Peter Nygard did so. “called back in the fall to invite him to the Bahamas for New Year's Eve. I felt in his voice that he understood that he had done wrong, she concluded.< /p>
During cross-examination, the defense maintains that the complainant is mistaken in her dates, particularly regarding the parade at Massey Hall.
The complainant maintains that she worked at the parade in July 1997, while the defense shows her that the ex-tycoon booked the venue for a fashion show in July of the previous year.
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Peter Nygard smiles at the CBC photographer as he leaves the Toronto courthouse at the end of the second day of 'hearing at his trial.
The defense then wonders why the plaintiff said she was so surprised to see an orgy at the workshop when she had already inadvertently seen one at Peter Nygard's in the Bahamas six months earlier. early.
This explains why she refused to return to Peter Nygard in March 1996.
I caught at least 25 people having sex in a cave on Peter Nygard Island , where he asked me to bring a tray of alcohol.
A quote from Complainant No. 3
The woman assures that she returned on foot to the residence while waiting for an assistant to Peter Nygard comes to meet her to organize her return to her hotel on the neighboring island.
The defense then accuses her of having invented this whole rape story, because she suggests that she had been invited to join the guests and not to serve them cocktails that night – there and she wasn't wearing a black waitress costume.
I wasn't hired to attend an orgy , she said, raising her voice.
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Brian Greenspan, Peter Nygard's lawyer enters the courthouse on the first day of the trial on September 26, 2023.
The woman denies having lied and dressed seductively and explains that Peter Nygard had already paid her $500 in cash cash as salary.
The woman further admits that she agreed to travel to the Bahamas for New Year 1997 and would then work for Peter Nygard for a week for a salary of $5,000.
It was a job as a governess at her villa to serve her guests, she recalls.
She also admits that she continued to work for Peter Nygard for six years, with three stays per year at his property in the West Indies, but on the sole condition that he no longer touch her never.
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Peter Nygard's bedroom on the 5th floor of his Toronto fashion studio, where Complainant No. 3 says she was raped in 1996.
The plaintiff admits that she is participating in the class action of several alleged victims of Peter Nygard in the United States.
I made up my mind after seeing two articles in the press on this subject in 2020, she recalls.
She claims, however, that the American law firm never forced her to prosecute the designer for the 1996 rape, nor did Peter Nygard's sworn business enemy, Louis Bacon, who finances , according to the defense, said class action.
It is bizarre that you do not mention anywhere in the legal action documents that you were raped in Toronto , asks the defense.
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Peter Nygard, leaning on a table, watches jury selection at his trial on September 21, 2023.
What he did to me in the Bahamas was much worse, she replied without further details.
< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hNZoeU">The woman further admits that she did participate in an interview with CBC in January 2021 before reporting Peter Nygard to the police the following November.
Here again, the defense wonders why she did not mention to the journalist the fact that she had been raped as she claims.
It wasn't a sexual assault, because he couldn't get hard, but an assault, because he slapped me, he said. she concluded.
Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116
