Peter Nygard 'became another person, like a monster' during alleged assault, trial hears

WARNING: This article contains descriptionsof sexual abuse and vulgar language.

The first of five women accusing Peter Nygard of sexual assault said the Canadian fashion mogul became "a monster" as he trapped herinside his private bedroom suite in his downtown Toronto headquarters, chasedher around the room and then rapedher more than 30 years ago.

"I was forced to stay in a room against my willand I was raped," the woman testified in a Toronto courtroom on Tuesday.

"By whom?" asked Crown attorney Neville Golwalla.

"By Mr. Peter Nygard," she said, breaking down in tears.

Nygard, 82,has pleaded not guiltyto five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinementin alleged incidents involving five women, dating fromthe late 1980s to 2005.

In opening argumentsmade last week, the Crown told jurors thatNygard, the founder of a now-defunct international clothing company,used his power and status to lure andsexually assaultthe women aged 16 to 28 at the time in hisprivate bedroom suite of his downtown Toronto headquarters.

The woman, now 62, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, told court Tuesday that the night of the alleged assault, she was invited to meet Nygardat the TorontoSkyDome for a Rolling Stones concert in Decemberof 1989.

She said that during the alleged attack, when she realized she was trappedand unable to overpower Nygard,she stopped putting up a fight.

"I was terrified," she said. "I didn't know what to do, I couldn't get out."

Instead, she testified, she "went limp," but fearing she could get pregnant or a disease, pleaded with Nygard to "put a f--king condom on."

The woman began her testimonyby describinghowshe first met Nygard. It wasthe summer of 1988 or 1989, she said,and she was 27 or 28, single, and an actress whohad been living in Toronto. She had goneon a yoga retreat in the Bahamas with a male friend when Nygard approached her at the Nassau airport, both on their way to Toronto.

"Someonetouched me on the back and said, 'Oh, that's a very nice colour you're wearing,'"the woman told court.

She said hetalked about himself, telling herhe was a fashion designer who owned property in various places, including the Bahamas, and that she found him to be an interesting person and recalled thinking"he's an attractive man."

She accepted a ride from the airport back to her Toronto apartment, but Nygard's driver took a detour to the designer's downtown headquarters at 1 Niagara St.

Nygard gave her tour of the building, along with hisprivate bedroom that included a small kitchenette, embedded television sets and a large bed, she said.

The two exchanged numbers, she said, andsubsequently went out a couple times to restaurants.The woman said while she felthe was an interesting person, she had noattraction to him, that he was too full of himself, and that she was not being "talked with" but "talked to."

Months later, she saidaccepted an invitation to a Rolling Stones concert inDecember 1989,and then, while parked with him in his Mercedes near his office building, agreed to go insidefor a drink.

She said he told her he wasn't going to do anything,but that she had a flash in her mind: "He's going to rape me."

Because of Nygard's social status, and as someone who knew then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, she said she ignored her concerns.

Once inside the building,they wentto his bedroom suite, the woman told court, where Nygardpushed a button that opened the door.

After the door closed, with the two of theminside, she testifiedthere was no doorknob inside the suite and that the door was locked.

Nygard told her she wasn't locked in, she said, showing her a keypad where he punched in some numbers to unlockthe door. But she said when she tried it, the door remainedlocked, and that shestarted "topanic a little bit," thinking "something is really wrong here."

Nygard then told her to make him a sandwich, she said, and as she made hima ham sandwich, he started hurling insults. She said he called her a c--kteaser, that she was wastinghis time. She said she rejected his insults and told him she never led him on, but that hebecame angrier, "pumping himself up."

When she brought him the sandwich, she said, he tried to grab herandas he chased her around and over the bed, he would grab a body part and peel off a piece of her clothing. At one point, she said, Nygard was sitting on her with all his weight, pinning her to the bed.

"Why areyou doing this?" she said she told Nygard.

The woman testified that whenshe begged him to wear a condom, he got off the bed,retrieved one, and then sexuallyassaulted her.

Afterward, she said she started to cry, and Nygard asked why she was crying.

"Becauseyou raped me," she said she told Nygard.

"I didn't rape you," she said Nygard replied.

Golwalla asked the woman to describe Nygard from the point she was making the sandwich, to the point right after the alleged sexual assault.

"He became like another person, like a monster," the woman said.

But immediatelyafter, Nygard was "back to business, as if nothinghad happened," she said."Like a personality switch."

Nygard called her a taxi, took out a $100 bill and threw itat her, she said, which she refused to take.

The woman's testimony continues on Wednesday.