Former fashion mogul Peter Nygard arrives at a courthouse in Toronto in October, 2023.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Charges that former fashion mogul Peter Nygard confined and sexually assaulted a woman in one of his company’s warehouses in 1993 were stayed Wednesday due to missing documentation.
Provincial court judge Mary Kate Harvie, ruling on an application from Nygard’s lawyer, said records of police interviews with the complainant in 1993 were later destroyed without justifiable reasons, violating Nygard’s Charter right to a fair trial.
“By denying the accused the opportunity to challenge the complainant on her initial statement ... due to its unavailability, the accused’s ability to make full answer and defence has been compromised,” Harvie said in a 41-page written decision.
“The applicant’s right to a fair trial has been substantially prejudiced and will be further aggravated by allowing the trial to proceed.”
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Nygard, who still faces sex charges in other jurisdictions, was charged in 2023 after police said a woman came forward with allegations she was sexually assaulted in Manitoba’s capital 30 years earlier.
She spoke with Winnipeg police and Vancouver RCMP in 1993, but indicated she would not press charges, Harvie wrote.
In 2020, the woman gave a video statement to Winnipeg police. But prosecutors decided not to lay charges.
Two years later, former Manitoba attorney-general Kelvin Goertzen forwarded the investigation to Saskatchewan Justice for an independent review and Nygard was arrested the following year.
Notes from the 1993 police interviews are no longer available, and were presumed to have been purged due to the passage of time.
The judge said she found the rules and procedures around retaining police reports fuzzy and inexcusable in the era of electronic and computer technology. She rejected the Crown’s argument that the interview documents are relevant but their loss doesn’t reach the level of “unacceptable negligence.”
Charges of sex assault and unlawful confinement have been stayed against former fashion mogul Peter Nygard due to missing documents.
The Canadian Press
Nygard, 84, founded his now-defunct global women’s clothing company in Winnipeg in 1967. He stepped down as chairman after the FBI and police raided his offices in New York in February 2020.
His lawyer said Wednesday Nygard was pleased with the ruling, and the missing police records from 1993 are important to the case.
“The only two recordings, whatever she said at those times, are not available to him,” Gerri Wiebe said.
“And that’s critical information because the way that you defend sexual assault charges, of course, is primarily to try to show that there are discrepancies or differences in the way that the complainant has described the incidents.”
British Columbia RCMP said they would not comment on a court decision.
“What I can say is that evidence collection and retention procedures have evolved considerably over the past 30 years,” spokesperson Staff Sgt. Kris Clark wrote in an e-mail.
Nygard was sentenced last year to 11 years for sex offences in Toronto. He also faces a trial on sex charges in Quebec as well as extradition to the United States on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.