In Toronto, the jury in the Peter Nygard trial was never informed that the number of complainants and the number of charges had been reduced at the last minute before the trial began. The CBC documentary “The Fifth Estate” was also not used as incriminating evidence.
The Crown told Judge Robert Goldstein on September 11 that it had reduced the number of charges against Peter Nygard from 11 to 6 and the number of complainants from 8 to 5.
The identities of all of Peter Nygard’s alleged victims are protected by a publication ban.
However, Crown prosecutor Neville Golwalla did not give the reasons for this change of heart, which delayed the start of the hearings by two weeks. The law didn’t require him to do that anyway.
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Peter Nygard, seen here at the Toronto courthouse, is accused of raping five women, including a minor, between 1986 and 2005.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Evan Mitsui/CBC
Nevertheless, by inference we can assume at least two things:
- the Crown did not have sufficient evidence to establish a reasonable likelihood of a guilty verdict;
- Three of the eight complainants decided to drop the charges against Peter Nygard for different reasons.
The jury was therefore not informed of the existence of these additional complainants and of the charges, which are similar to the six criminal charges Peter Nygard faces in this trial.
For two of the three women, there were three cases of sexual assault and two cases of deprivation of liberty.
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The Toronto South Detention Center where Peter Nygard has been incarcerated since his transfer from Manitoba in the fall of 2021.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Mark Bochsler / CBC
The jury was also never told that the Crown intended to try a fourth woman who never filed a complaint against Peter Nygard in Canada but who claims she was assaulted in the Bahamas.
However, prosecutor Golwalla changed his mind about him for reasons he also did not disclose.
However, the nature and circumstances of the four women’s allegations cannot be disclosed at this time as the 2022 bail hearing remains subject to a publication ban.
Secret preventive detention
The jury also never learned that an Ontario justice of the peace had refused to release Peter Nygard on bail after he was arrested in Manitoba and transferred to Ontario.
In this trial, Peter Nygard never appeared in the dock in his prison uniform. He wore the same black civilian clothes and always sat next to his two lawyers.
The jury therefore could not see that the defendant entered the courtroom each morning handcuffed and sitting in a wheelchair before a police officer placed him in a chair.
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Brian Greenspan, Peter Nygard’s attorney, enters the courthouse for the start of the trial on September 26, 2023.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Evan Mitsui
Attorney Brian Greenspan further explained that it was difficult for him to meet his client and prepare him for his testimony because he had to go to prison due to a very restrictive visitation schedule.
However, he did not immediately announce to the court that he intended to call his client as a witness.
Likewise, the jury never learned that Peter Nygard faces additional criminal charges in Quebec and Manitoba and that he faces extradition proceedings between Canada and the United States.
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Crown prosecutor Neville Golwalla enters the Toronto courthouse after lunch on the first day of the trial, September 26, 2023.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Evan Mitsui
The judge also severely restricted the Crown’s cross-examination of the defendants.
An entire day had been devoted to studying the questions the Crown wanted to put to Peter Nygard.
The documentary “The Fifth Estate”.
For example, the Crown wanted to take advantage of excerpts from the CBC program The Fifth Estate, particularly the images showing Peter Nygard partying at his estate and aboard his private plane.
Prosecutors wanted to prove that Peter Nygard had consumed more alcohol over five days than he admitted in his testimony.
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In this photo, taken from a video by Stephen Feralio, Peter Nygard celebrates the election of Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie in 2012 at his former office in New York.
Photo: Stephen Feralio
According to Crown, Peter Nygard was seen drinking beer on his jet, champagne at a party in New York and wine at his daughter’s wedding at his Los Angeles residence.
Mr Golwalla recalled that Peter Nygard had invited some of the five complainants to his suite for a drink and that it was appropriate to point out contradictions in the defendant’s statement when he claimed to drink very little alcohol and only drink wine.
The prosecutor states that complainant No. 2, who was the only minor in the group at the time of the alleged acts, disclosed in her statement that Peter Nygard made her drink before the alleged gang rape of three people.
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Peter Nygard’s former Toronto headquarters with private quarters on the fifth floor.
Photo: Radio-Canada / CBC (Archives)
Me Golwalla sought to prove that alcohol was readily available at all of the defendant’s properties, including his plane, even though all of the complainants claim they were attacked in the private suite of Peter Nygard’s former studio in Toronto.
However, the judge ordered him to focus only on the presence of alcohol in the Toronto suite.
Other restrictions of the magistrate
The judge limited the scope of Dr. Lori Haskell, the prosecution’s first witness in this trial, continued.
The defense strongly objected to her presence, fearing she would distract the jury’s attention.
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Peter Nygard’s bedroom on the fifth floor of his Toronto fashion studio, where the five complainants say they were raped.
Photo: Radio-Canada / CBC (Archives)
The judge only authorized the Crown to question the psychologist about the effects of peritraumatic, rather than posttraumatic, stress syndrome on a rape victim.
Peritraumatic stress describes all the physiological, emotional and cerebral reactions that a victim of sexual violence may express during a traumatic event rather than after the traumatic event.
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Clinical psychologist Lori Haskell is the first prosecution witness to be examined in Peter Nygard’s trial.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-Philippe Nadeau
The Crown called Dr. Haskell took the stand so the jury understood the complexities of trauma to the human brain before calling the five complainants to testify.
The psychologist explained that traumatic events can affect victims’ memory, judgment and reflexes.
However, she was unable to explain to jurors the effects of post-traumatic stress on rape victims long after the commission of disturbing sexual acts.