5 phụ nữ tố cáo ông trùm thời trang đã dụ họ vào phòng ngủ 'bẩn thỉu'

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The five women testifying (làm chứng) that the Canadian fashion mogul (ông trùm thời trang) Peter Nygard sexually assaulted (tấn công tình dục) them described for jurors (bồi thẩm đoàn) over the past four weeks how they ended up in the hidden bedroom suite at his office.

Decades ago, they said, they each accepted Mr. Nygard’s invitation to visit the stylish Toronto headquarters of his fashion kingdom (kinh đô thời trang), Nygard International. He was an eager tour guide, they testified, showing off a high-end car in the garage as well as a glistening (lấp lánh) showroom. But, they said, he was most excited about bringing guests upstairs to the wood-paneled bedroom suite, fitted with a fireplace (lò sưởi), a stone Jacuzzi, a stocked bar and a large bed.

It was behind the sliding doors of that room, which Mr. Nygard could operate and lock from a keypad on the nightstand (tủ đầu giường), that each of the women said he sexually assaulted them.

“I was a prisoner (tù nhân) in that room,” said one woman, the last of five complainants (người khiếu nại) to conclude her testimony (lời khai) at a Toronto courthouse this week as prosecutors (công tố viên) prepare to close their case. “The door sliding open is seared (in sâu, khắc sâu) in my psyche,” she later added.

... The charges represent a dramatic reversal of fortune for a man who was once hailed as a rags-to-riches (từ nghèo trở nên giàu có; tay trắng làm nên) success, and they have unraveled Mr. Nygard’s decades-long effort to quash (dập tắt) sexual assault allegations lodged against him in civil lawsuits.

In Toronto, prosecutors argued that Mr. Nygard had a pattern of luring women into his office bedroom in different episodes from the 1980s until 2005.

... But the business meeting never happened. Instead, after flying her to Toronto from Los Angeles and making sexual remarks (tán tỉnh gợi dục) over a brief meal of oysters (hàu), Mr. Nygard led the woman upstairs in what she thought was a “pit stop” on a tour of the office, she testified. He pinned her on the bed and raped (cưỡng hiếp) her, she told jurors, at moments through tears, with a support dog napping by her side at the witness stand.

She testified that he ignored, and then became angry with, her repeated pleas to stop, telling her, “The girls let me do this. Why aren’t you letting me do this?” and “Don’t you know how it works?”

The woman’s mother, who testified on Wednesday, advised her daughter against alerting the police at the time because of Mr. Nygard’s outsize wealth (khối tài sản khổng lồ) and reputation (danh tiếng).

source: nytimes,