“To describe Peter Nygard as an evil predator, a Jekyll and Hyde personality who, through wealth and power, lured women to his den of iniquity and forced women to comply with his sexual demands… is neither fair nor accurate,” he said.
Greenspan said the complainants’ testimony was at times “painfully absurd,” and he suggested that four of the women were motivated by financial gain or “gold-digging,” as they had admitted to being involved in a US class-action lawsuit against him.
Prosecutor Ana Serban, on the other hand, said Nygard on the stand was evasive and inconsistent, and that his memory was unreliable and selective.
Serban pointed to “remarkably similar accounts” of his five accusers, independent of each other, about how they met Nygard, were invited to his office building and “how he sexually assaulted them in his private bedroom suite.”
“The similarities defy coincidence,” she said. “It’s a pattern of behavior.”
Testifying in his own defense, Nygard did not recall meeting or knowing four of his accusers, and insisted he never raped any of the five.
“The type of allegations that were said and were described is the type of conduct that I know that I have never done, I never would do,” he told the court, even while admitting that his memory had become “very fuzzy” with age.
Nygard, who in 1967 founded the firm that was to become Nygard International, has been held in detention since his arrest in 2020.
He must now face similar charges in Quebec and Manitoba, as well as extradition to the United States, where he has been accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women and girls, racketeering and trafficking.
“To describe Peter Nygard as an evil predator, a Jekyll and Hyde personality who, through wealth and power, lured women to his den of iniquity and forced women to comply with his sexual demands… is neither fair nor accurate,” he said.
Greenspan said the complainants’ testimony was at times “painfully absurd,” and he suggested that four of the women were motivated by financial gain or “gold-digging,” as they had admitted to being involved in a US class-action lawsuit against him.
Prosecutor Ana Serban, on the other hand, said Nygard on the stand was evasive and inconsistent, and that his memory was unreliable and selective.
Serban pointed to “remarkably similar accounts” of his five accusers, independent of each other, about how they met Nygard, were invited to his office building and “how he sexually assaulted them in his private bedroom suite.”
“The similarities defy coincidence,” she said. “It’s a pattern of behavior.”
Testifying in his own defense, Nygard did not recall meeting or knowing four of his accusers, and insisted he never raped any of the five.
“The type of allegations that were said and were described is the type of conduct that I know that I have never done, I never would do,” he told the court, even while admitting that his memory had become “very fuzzy” with age.
Nygard, who in 1967 founded the firm that was to become Nygard International, has been held in detention since his arrest in 2020.
He must now face similar charges in Quebec and Manitoba, as well as extradition to the United States, where he has been accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women and girls, racketeering and trafficking.