The jury passed down the decision on the 5th day of deliberations following a six-week trial in Toronto.
Nygard, 82, had pleaded no longer guilty to all fees, which stemmed from allegations relationship again from the Nineteen Eighties to the mid-2000s.
Five girls – whose identities are secure by way of a newsletter ban – had testified that they had been invited to Nygard’s Toronto headquarters underneath pretexts starting from excursions to activity interviews, with all encounters finishing in a top-floor bed room suite the place 4 of them had been sexually assaulted.
Multiple complainants advised the jury an identical tales of assembly Nygard on a airplane, at an airport tarmac or at a nightclub after which receiving invites to return to headquarters. All 5 girls stated their conferences or interactions with Nygard ended with sexual task that they didn’t consent to.
One of the complainants testified that Nygard wouldn’t let her depart his personal suite for a while, which ended in the forcible confinement rate. Others additionally testified about feeling trapped within the suite, describing doorways that needed to be opened with a keypad code or the rush of a button close to the mattress.
One lady testified that she was once best 16 years previous when she accompanied an older guy she was once relationship on the time to Nygard’s headquarters, the place she stated Nygard sexually assaulted her after which any other lady passed her an emergency contraceptive tablet on her means out.
Nygard testified in his personal protection on the trial and denied all 5 girls’s allegations, pronouncing he didn’t even recall assembly or interacting with 4 of them. He insisted he would by no means have interaction within the kind of behavior he was once accused of, and stated no person may have been locked inside of his personal suite underneath any instances.
At the top of the trial, prosecutors argued that Nygard was once evasive and unreliable in his testimony and that the similarities in all 5 girls’s tales confirmed a trend in his conduct.
The protection argued that the complainants crafted a “false narrative” about Nygard and advised their sexual assault claims had been motivated by way of a class-action lawsuit in opposition to Nygard within the United States.
Nygard continues to be going through legal fees in 3 different jurisdictions.
He is going through fees of sexual assault and forcible confinement in separate instances in Quebec and Manitoba, associated with allegations relationship again to the Nineties. He may be going through fees within the U.S.
Nygard was once first arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 underneath the Extradition Act after he was once charged with 9 counts in New York, together with intercourse trafficking and racketeering fees.
The federal justice minister on the time had stated Nygard could be extradited to the U.S. after the instances in opposition to him in Canada are resolved.
Nygard based a manner corporate in Winnipeg in 1967 that in the long run turned into Nygard International. The corporate produced girls’s clothes underneath a number of logo names and had company amenities in each Canada and the U.S.
Nygard stepped down as chairman of the corporate after the FBI and police raided his places of work in New York City in February 2020. The corporate has since filed for chapter and entered into receivership.
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