Nygard given ll-year sentence

Survivors hope case will inspire other sex assault victims

- JACQUES GALLANT

After disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard was sentenced to 11 years in prison Monday for multiple sexual assaults spanning decades in Toronto, one of his victims declared: “If we can do it, so can you.”

The woman’s statement about finding the strength to come forward with her allegations underscored a fact emphasized by Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein in his sentencing decision: that Nygard was able to use his power and influence in the fashion industry to prey on young women and girls for years and sexually assault them, leaving them humiliated, degraded and traumatized.

And although now 83 years old and complaining of numerous health issues, his power has evaporated and he’s finally off to prison.

“Today, we the survivors finally have closure,” the woman said in a statement read to reporters by therapist Shannon Moroney.

“We did not endure four years of hell just for ourselves. We did this to ensure that every victim of sexual assault will remember this trial and feel the strength and confidence to come forward and not be threatened by social status or money.”

Nygard was convicted by a jury last November of attacking three women and a 16-year-old girl in the top-floor bedroom of his former Toronto headquarters at 1 Niagara St. between the 1980s and 2005. Their identities are covered by a standard publication ban.

“Peter Nygard is a sexual predator,” Goldstein said as he began reading his sentencing decision Monday in front of a packed courtroom that included some of Nygard’s victims as well as jurors who found him guilty.

“He is also a Canadian success story gone very wrong,” Goldstein said.