Canada

Sex charges against former fashion mogul Peter Nygard were stayed in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday after the judge ruled the convicted sex offender’s right to a fair trial has been breached because of lost evidence.

“I am satisfied that (Nygard’s) right to a fair trial has been substantially prejudiced and will be further aggravated by allowing the trial to proceed,” provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie said.

Nygard had been set to stand trial in December on charges he sexually assaulted and forcibly confined a woman, who was then 20, at his former corporate headquarters in Winnipeg in 1993.

Court previously heard Winnipeg police visited the woman for a “wellness check” on the day of the alleged assault after family members reported they could not reach her, and she was interviewed by RCMP after she returned home to Vancouver days later. Records of the two meetings were later destroyed, crippling Nygard’s ability to mount a full defence, Wiebe told court last month. She argued the destruction of the evidence amounted to “unacceptable negligence.”