The 5th plaintiff is vague according to Peter Nygard's defense.

82-year-old fashion designer faces 6 charges of sexual assault and false imprisonment in Toronto.

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Defense attorney Brian Greenspan cross-examines Complainant No. 5 on the final day of her testimony on October 17, 2023. The woman is accompanied by a therapy dog.

• Jean-Philippe Nadeau (View profile)Jean-Philippe Nadeau

In Toronto, Peter Nygard's defense notes numerous memory lapses in the testimony of the last complainant who testifies against his client, accused of having raped and kidnapped her in the private suite of his fashion workshop at the end of the 1980s.

The defendant's lawyer, Brian Greenspan, notes contradictions in the timeline of events leading up to the #x27;alleged assault of which the 56-year-old woman says she was the victim.

WARNING : this text may shock some readers.

The woman said on Monday that she was in California in March 1988 for a television job before the release of a children's film in the United States and that Peter Nygard had brought her to Toronto to meet her, changing his flight back to Ottawa.

She said Tuesday that she was in Los Angeles at the end of January or beginning of February 1989, because Mr. Greenspan showed her an article in which we learned that Peter Nygard was giving a reception at his studio and that he was in Toronto that winter.

Mr. Greenspan implies that his client was not in Toronto in March 1988.

Nygard Trial: 5th Plaintiff Says She Thought About Suicide After Being Raped year, but that she must have been 19 or 20 years old. It was well into winter because there were no more Christmas decorations in Los Angeles, she said.

She further admits to having done research on the Internet to try to fill in her memory gaps on this subject as the defense suggests.

She corrects, however, Mr. Greenspan, when the lawyer told her that she was delighted to know that her client had called her at her parents' house in his absence, because he was trying to reach her for a meeting you business.

I had apprehensions, I wasn't delighted, she specifies. She says her fears were eased, however, when he assured her over the phone that he would put her up at a hotel in Toronto during her stopover.

The plaintiff is one of five women who accuse Peter Nygard of sexual assault. The women were aged 16 to 28 at the time of the alleged events, between 1986 and 2005.

The defense then notes inconsistencies regarding her itinerary between Los Angeles and Toronto.

The complainant admits that she is unaware of how Peter Nygard went about changing his plane ticket to bring her to Toronto rather than Ottawa, her original destination.

Me Greenspan reminds her that electronic tickets did not exist at the time and that she obviously had to have them receive in person for boarding.

It's been almost 40 years, how do you expect me to remember it ?, she replies.

She specifies that she no longer knows whether the tickets had been left at her hotel or directly at the airport.

His assistant had to take care of it, because it's too thankless a task for him, she replies.

Me Greenspan is surprised that his client brought plaintiff No. 5 to Toronto, even though he had a residence in California, where she could have met him for business.

The woman also does not remember the hotel where Peter Nygard dropped her off in Toronto before the alleged assault or the bar where they went to. first met before going to his fashion workshop.

I know the hotel was so close to the bar that I was able to walk there, she said, assuming the hotel was on Front Street and the bar was on Wellington.

She also denies not having left the bar when Peter Nygard made comments of a sexual nature to her.

I was trying to divert the conversation, she explains. She remembers telling him at one point that she wasn't that type of girl.

Peter Nygard listens to complainant No. 5 on his screen under the gaze of Justice Robert Goldstein of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

She adds that her fears were dissipated, however, when Peter Nygard finally invited her to his workshop and when they were finally able to talk about fashion. He showed me around three showrooms, she recalls.

The plaintiff points out that Peter Nygard's private suite had 20 televisions on the ceiling. However, the previous complainants had said that she only had three.

She mentions that there was also an emergency exit, but without a cover, near the bed, so that we could see the sidewalk in plunged several meters lower, as if the building was not yet finished.

I was afraid he would throw me there if I didn't obey him when he was to attack me, she said.

Some previous complainants had rather claimed that the emergency exit had a door and that it was near the toilet.

The plaintiff swears that Peter Nygard never told her about the avant-garde design of his fashion studio before he took her into his suite, which she said was hidden behind a wall.

She also claims that she did not kiss or hug Peter Nygard as the defense claims.

Mr. Greenspan also incriminates her for having told the police that she had remembered a detail that she had failed to tell him the first time, namely that Peter Nygard has a child's penis.

You drew this from your imagination, says the lawyer, who accuses him of #x27;having forgotten such an important detail in the detailed description of the rape of which she says she was a victim.

The woman further admits that she no longer remembers whether the alleged assault lasted about an hour as she stated in her Monday interrogation or 5 hours as she mentioned. to the police.

Complainant No. 5 answers questions from prosecutor Neville Golwalla at the trial of Peter Nygard in Toronto on October 16, 2023.

The woman also maintains that&#x27 ;she is not participating in the class action lawsuit of several women against Peter Nygard in the United States.

Mr. Greenspan, however, accuses him of considering the possibility, if his client were ever to be found guilty at the end of this criminal trial. The complainant, however, asserts that it is not in her plans to sue him in civil court.

Me Greenspan nevertheless reminds her that her mother had told her advised after the alleged assault not to report Peter Nygard to the police, because wealthy men have powerful lawyers to help them.

Yet you approached Gloria Allred in California, he asks her with a touch of irony (this is the lawyer who defended the victims of Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein, Editor’s note).

From left to right: Peter Nygard, his lawyers and prosecutor Ana Serban at the lectern during the Crown opening arguments on September 26, 2023.

The woman admits that she did contact Mr. Allred, but to obtain help in her statements to the police and that she had gotten her contact from her clinic where she was in therapy in Los Angeles.

She adds that she never learned the #x27;existence of a class action against Peter Nygard in the media.

Mr. Greenspan also took care to cite the plaintiff's curriculum vitae, showing the jury that she is a professional actress and that she has studied or worked in Toronto, London, New York and Los Angeles, suggesting that she knows acting well.

I was a child actress, she admits.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

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