Peter Nygard found guilty in Montreal sexual assault case

Former fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been found guilty by a Canadian judge of sexual assault and forcible confinement the charges related to incidents that took place in Montreal in the 1990s.

The ruling came after Nygard, 84, offered no contest against evidence by prosecutors in a Montreal courthouse on Monday, the first day of his trial in the case. He had been charged by prosecutors in the province of Quebec in 2022.

His trial was scheduled to last 10 days.

In 2024, in a separate case, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting four women in Toronto, Canada, from the late 1980s to 2005.

His appeal in that case was dismissed by an Ontario court earlier this year.

Nygard's lawyer, Gerri Wiebe, told the BBC that her client "made a strategic decision not to contest the charges" based on his extradition situation.

Further historical sexual assault charges against Nygard in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were stayed by a judge last year over concerns his right to a fair trial were breached when police failed to retain older records.

Nygard has been accused of using his wealth and influence to systematically assault and traffic women in the US and Canada over a number of decades, when he was at the helm Nygard International, his global clothing design and manufacturing business.

In 2020, he stepped down as chairman of the firm shortly before it filed for bankruptcy after US authorities raided its New York headquarters.

Once his legal cases in Canada are completed, he is expected to be extradited to the US, where authorities claim he engaged in a "decades-long pattern of criminal conduct" involving at least a dozen victims across the globe.

He intends to request that Canada's justice minister suspend any extradition to the US given his age and health, Wiebe said on Monday.

Nygard has denied all the allegations against him.