PRINCE Andrew’s tycoon pal Peter Nygard has been found guilty of sexually assaulting four women.
The 82-year-old Canadian fashion mogul was convicted after a six-week trial.
APPeter Nygard has been found guilty of sexually assaulting four women[/caption]
APPeter Nygard leaves court in a police van after being found guilty of four counts of sexual assault[/caption]
ReutersA court sketch of Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard[/caption]
He pleaded not guilty to all charges, which stemmed from allegations from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, and his lawyers branded his accusers “gold diggers”.
Five women testified that they were invited to Nygard’s Toronto offices with the promise of tours or job interviews – and all ended up in his private suite where four of them were sexually assaulted.
Multiple complainants told the jury similar stories of meeting Nygard on a plane, at an airport or at a nightclub before receiving invitations to meet him.
All five women said their meetings with Nygard ended with sexual activity they did not consent to.
One of the complainants said the fashion mogul wouldn’t let her leave his private suite – which led to the forcible confinement charge.
Others said they felt trapped in the suite, describing doors that had to be opened with a keypad code or the push of a button near the bed.
One called Nygard “a monster”.
Another said: “He lunged at me and adeptly pinned me on the bed. I kept repeating the word ‘no,’ at least 50 times.”
One woman said she was only 16-years-old when she accompanied an older man she was dating at the time to Nygard’s headquarters.
She said Nygard sexually assaulted her and another woman handed her an emergency contraceptive pill on her way out.
During the trial, Canadian prosecutor Ana Serban accused Nygard of having used his “power and status as a wealthy fashion designer to lure and sexually assault young women”.
Nygard denied all the allegations and said he didn’t recall meeting or interacting with four of them.
He insisted he would never engage in the conduct he was accused of.
He added that no one could have been locked inside his private suite under any circumstances.
At the end of the trial, prosecutors argued Nygard was evasive and unreliable in his testimony and similarities in all five women’s stories showed a pattern in his behaviour.
The defence argued the complainants crafted a false narrative about Nygard and suggested their claims were motivated by a class-action lawsuit against Nygard in the US.
Nygard appeared emotionless as the verdict was handed down.
He was cleared of one count of sexual assault and a count of forcible confinement.
Sentencing for Nygard will be announced at a later date.
He is facing charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement in separate cases in Quebec and Manitoba, related to allegations dating back to the 1990s.
He is also facing charges in the US.
Nygard was first arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 under the Extradition Act after he was charged with nine counts in New York, including sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Lisa Haba, a lawyer representing almost 60 women suing Nygard in the US, has previously said “Nygard is worse than (Jeffrey) Epstein”.
“We believe he had more victims, and he was more violent,” she said in 2021.
Nygard founded a fashion firm in Winnipeg in 1967 which became Nygard International.
He dined with the late Queen and rubbed shoulders with political leaders and Hollywood stars.
He long boasted about his rise from humble beginnings, as a young Finnish immigrant who built a fashion empire with almost 170 stores at its peak, and amassed a personal fortune worth $620 million.
He invited Andrew and ex Sarah Ferguson to his luxurious estate in the Bahamas in 2000.
He and the prince were pictured together.
Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson and their two daughters toured the grounds of Nygard’s estate for two hours, but did not stay at the mansion.
Police raided Nygard’s Manhattan corporate headquarters in 2020, and his company filed for bankruptcy protection a short time later.
His arrest came after a whistleblower released footage that included a 17-year-old dancing on a stripper pole on Nygard’s private Boeing 727 plane.
In the US, prosecutors allege Nygard used company funds to host “pamper parties” where girls were drugged and women assaulted if they didn’t comply with his sexual demands.
They also claimed he paid from corporate accounts for victims’ plastic surgery and abortions – as well as child support for at least 10 kids he reportedly fathered with eight different women.
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