A second plaintiff in Peter Nygard’s Toronto trial claimed Tuesday that the designer raped her along with another man and a woman when she was 16 years old.
WARNING: This article may shock some readers
The Canadian of Finnish origin is accused of raping five Toronto women between 1986 and 2005. The complainants were between 16 and 28 years old at the time.
The second complainant, who cannot be identified, is now 35 years old. She explains that in the winter of 2004/2005, a friend invited her to the designer’s studio on Niagara Street in Toronto. There she meets Peter Nygard with an older woman who she believes is the designer’s assistant.
She states that her boyfriend Oreste Manzella invited her to a Fashion World party and that he wanted to introduce her to Peter Nygard, whom she did not know. The young woman says she is surprised there is no one else in the building and imagines the party would be somewhere else.
“The four of us went upstairs to have a drink in an office that had access to a bedroom,” she says. At Peter Nygard’s request, the complainant then gave her telephone number to the woman who accompanied her.
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Plaintiff No. 2 is the only minor at the time among the five women who accuse Peter Nygard of sexually abusing them from 1986 to 2005.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pam Davies
The woman points out that Peter Nygard told her that she could work as a model at his company, but that she told him that she was not interested in fashion. He no longer showed any interest in me after that, she says.
She added that her friend then started a discussion with the designer and she sat on the bed with the other woman because there was no chair in the room.
Attack on three people
In the article, the complainant states that her friend and Peter Nygard made loud sexual comments about her.
The young woman heard Manzella telling Nygard that her private parts were not yet fully developed and that the designer really wanted to see her naked.
“I was lying on a bed and then they spread my knees while they took off my underwear,” she recalls, adding that the other woman looked at her.
She points out that Peter Nygard put his head between her legs while his friend left her to focus on the other woman.
Orestes came to us a few moments later and Peter Nygard ordered the woman to take off the top of my clothes and lick my breasts, she confesses.
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Defendant Peter Nygard listens carefully to plaintiff #2, who cried several times during her testimony.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pam Davies
I was disgusted
The woman points out that Peter Nygard then raped her, that she felt terrible and went to the toilet to throw up.
Then he knocked on the door to tell me his condom was still in me, I was disgusted, she continues.
The other woman then allegedly came to clean her and give her pills to make her feel better.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized it was the morning-after pill, she said, adding that the woman had put extra pills in her coat.
She adds that her friend later drove her home and she woke up the next day fully clothed with a hangover. The woman called me that morning and advised me to take the pills from my jacket, which I did, she concluded.
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Close-up of Peter Nygard and his lead attorney Brian Greenspan during questioning by the Crown.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pam Davies
The complainant told the Crown that she did not go to police in the following days because she was trying to understand and rationalize what had happened to her.
I thought I was responsible, that I was in a place I shouldn’t have been, I lied to myself
She states that she kept this secret for many years before telling a friend and then her two successive husbands. However, she will not confide in her parents until she files a police report on January 8, 2021.
Cross-examination by the defense
The defense initially showed that the complainant’s story was unsubstantiated because she did not know the date and month of the attack, other than that it occurred in the winter of 2004 to 2005.
She also doesn’t remember the name of the woman present that evening and can’t recognize her in the photos the defense projects on the big screen.
The woman also admits to the defense that she was out of school at the time but was living with her parents, frequenting bars and using drugs recreationally.
Orestes supplied me with cocaine, but not cannabis, she said.
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Defense attorney Brian Greenspan cross-examines Appellant No. 2 as his client Peter Nygard and Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Goldstein look on.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pam Davies
The woman admits that at the time she dressed more like an adult to avoid identity checks in nightclubs.
However, the defense alleges that the complainant wanted to meet high society people at a party in the fashion world and that she dressed and made up appropriately for the occasion.
“I was not flattered when Peter Nygard complimented me about being too old for me,” the complainant explains.
The defense had him read out her police statement 17 years later, in which the complainant compared the attack on the bed to a game.
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Defense attorney Brian Greenspan conducted a brief, half-day cross-examination Tuesday.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pam Davies
The woman replies that she was petrified and speechless at the time, but that she did not consent at all and that her body language expressed her deep discomfort.
“I was confused, my memory was fuzzy, I felt dizzy,” she explains.
The defense accuses him of forgetting to mention allusions to his body language to the police. “I was in a very difficult situation, but I didn’t lie to the police,” she said, crying.