Ontario court upholds Peter Nygard’s 11-year sentence
The Ontario Court of Appeal has rejected peter nygard’s appeal of his Toronto sexual assault convictions and left his 11-year prison sentence in place. The ruling ends his challenge to the jury verdicts from 2023, when he was found guilty of sexually assaulting four women.
Toronto convictions at 1 Niagara St.
The convictions stem from assaults that jury members found occurred between the 1980s and 2005 in the top-floor bedroom of his company’s former Toronto headquarters at 1 Niagara St. The appeal court said there was no reason to interfere with either the convictions or the sentence.
Nygard had asked the court to reduce the prison term by considering a report from a specialist in geriatric medicine who examined him after sentencing in September 2024. The judges said there was already plenty of evidence before Justice Robert Goldstein about his health issues since he went into custody in 2020.
Those health issues included Type 2 diabetes, an enlarged prostate, low blood pressure, claustrophobia, light sensitivity and allergies to strong detergent and polyester. Grant Huscroft, Renee Pomerance and Peter Osborne wrote that age and condition were relevant, but did not justify a sentence out of proportion to the offences.
Haskell testimony challenge
One of Nygard’s appeal arguments focused on the evidence of Lori Haskell, a psychologist who gave the jury a general overview on the neurobiology of responses to traumatic events before the complainants testified. The court said any error in admitting that testimony was harmless and did not require a new trial.
The same appellate court had already ruled in 2024, in a separate Toronto sexual assault case involving Jacob Hoggard, that admitting Haskell’s testimony was a legal error. In Nygard’s case, the judges said that did not change the outcome.
In its brief decision, the panel said, “As the sentencing judge recognized, the appellant’s age and condition are relevant considerations, but they do not justify the imposition of a sentence disproportionate to the gravity of the offences” and “A sentence reduction would not be appropriate.”
Montreal case ahead
The ruling leaves Nygard facing a sexual trial involving one complainant in Montreal. He also faces the possibility of extradition to the United States on more sexual assault charges.
That keeps the legal pressure on the former fashion executive in place even after Friday’s decision. Nygard founded what would become Nygard International in 1967, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2020 as criminal investigations began in the United States and then Canada.
