Complainant in Nygard trial says door in bedroom suite would not open for her

TORONTO — Note: This story contains graphic content.

A woman who accused Peter Nygard of sexual assault told the fashion mogul she was “really uncomfortable” that she wasn’t able to open a keypad-operated door in his bedroom suite, court heard Thursday as she recalled the lead up to her alleged rape. 

The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, told a jury that Nygard was able to open the door to the top-floor suite at his Toronto headquarters but she could not when she tried putting in the same code. 

“I tried to open it and it doesn’t work for me, whatever the code was … the door did not open,” she said.

“I say at this point that I’m really uncomfortable the door doesn’t open.”

The woman is among five complainants in the case against Nygard, the founder of a now-defunct international women’s clothing company who has been accused of using his position in the fashion industry to lure women and girls.

The 82-year-old Nygard has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in alleged incidents ranging from the 1980s to mid-2000s.

The Crown has said that all five complainants in the case are expected to allege they were taken to Nygard’s Toronto headquarters under pretences ranging from tours to job interviews, with all encounters ending in the top-floor bedroom suite, where they were allegedly sexually assaulted.

The complainant who testified Thursday has told the trial she met Nygard for a Rolling Stones concert in Toronto in the late 1980s before being led back to the bedroom suite, where she alleged she was trapped and attacked. She was in her 20s at the time.

During cross-examination Thursday, the woman, now in her 60s, told jurors that when they first entered the suite, she asked Nygard how the door worked. She said he typed a code into a keypad that was near a bed, which led the door to open. 

When she tried to enter the code herself, the door didn’t open for her, she testified.

The woman alleged Nygard then instructed her to make him a sandwich in the suite before he became uncharacteristically angry, pinned her to the bed, undressed and raped her. 

She testified that during the alleged assault, she told him to “put on a f–king condom,” at which point he grabbed a condom from an “enormous” collection of more than 50 boxes of condoms and put one on.

The woman – who often had to pause her testimony to regain composure or wipe away tears – alleged that after the assault, Nygard told her to stop crying, to which she replied that he had raped her and he immediately denied it. 

She alleged he then called her a taxi and threw a $100 bill at her before she left, which she did not take. 

She also alleged she told a security guard on the building’s first floor that she had been sexually assaulted but was shrugged off.

Throughout cross-examination, Nygard’s defence lawyer, Brian Greenspan, attempted to highlight apparent inconsistencies between the woman’s testimony, her police statements and her memory of what happened.

The woman told jurors there was no handle on the inside of the bedroom suite’s door, but Greenspan said that’s inconsistent with her telling police in 1998, nearly a decade after the alleged incident, that she didn’t remember if there was a handle.

Earlier this week, the trial heard the woman testify that fear, shame and concern that Nygard could derail her career prevented her from coming forward for years.

The woman’s roommate at the time testified Thursday that upon returning home that night, the woman said Nygard sexually assaulted her. 

“I remember her crying and being very upset,” the roommate said.

Nygard founded Nygard International in Winnipeg in 1967, and stepped down as chairman of the clothing company in February 2020 before it filed for bankruptcy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2023.

Tyler Griffin, The Canadian Press