Seen through a police vehicle window, Peter Nygard arrives to a Courthouse in Toronto on Oct. 3, 2023.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Prosecutors are asking a Toronto court to sentence former fashion mogul Peter Nygard to 15 years behind bars.
Nygard, 83, was found guilty on four counts of sexual assault last November, but was acquitted of a fifth count, as well as a charge of forcible confinement.
The charges relate to allegations dating from the 1980s until the mid-2000s.
In a sentencing hearing today, Crown attorney Neville Golwalla says the Crown is seeking a sentence of 19 years, minus credit for the more than 1,000 days Nygard has spent in custody so far.
Golwalla says that sentence would reflect the seriousness of the offences and Nygard’s moral culpability, as well as his age and health.
The sentencing process has been delayed in part because Nygard’s two previous defence lawyers, Brian Greenspan and Megan Savard, asked to withdraw from the case earlier this year.
Nygard, who once led a multimillion-dollar clothing empire, has also faced health challenges throughout the case.
Aside from the Toronto case, he is also facing charges in two other provinces and the United States.
His Manitoba trial on sexual assault-related charges has been delayed in part due to Greenspan’s resignation as his defence lawyer in that case as well as the Toronto one.
Nygard also faces one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in Quebec.
He was first arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 under the Extradition Act after he was charged with nine counts in New York, including sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
In May, Manitoba’s highest court dismissed Nygard’s application for a judicial review of his extradition order, finding there was no reason to interfere with the order issued by then-justice minister David Lametti.
None of the criminal charges against Nygard in Quebec, Manitoba or the U.S. have been tested in court, and he has denied all allegations against him.