Published 10 September 2024 at 09.11
Foreign. The Finnish-Canadian fashion millionaire Peter Nygård, 83, is now sentenced to 11 years in prison for alleged sex crimes against four women between the years 1988 and 2005. Since there was no evidence for the up to 36-year-old crimes, the court chose to sentence entirely based on in the women's accusations.
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Already in November of last year, a jury decided to believe four of the total five women who accused Nygård, and convicted him against his denial of various forms of sexual abuse. In Canada, however, the jury does not decide the punishment.
However, Judge Robert Goldstein has done that. Yesterday he decided that Nygård should be treated as a serious sex offender and receive 11 years in prison.
According to Goldstein, Nygård is «a Canadian success story gone really wrong».
The judge added that «Nygård used his wealth, power and profile to prey on his victims». sexual acts that the women have not agreed to, writes Global News.
In several cases, Nygård is also accused of flying women on company-paid spa trips to his luxury resort Nygård Cay in the Bahamas, often on his private jet N-Force.
The women are referred to as «Jane Doe» and the like in the court documents as their identities have been sealed by the court, and it is therefore not possible to fully assess their credibility.
In an American crime report in a similar case, however, one sees startling information that Nygård would have arranged his own extensive rape activity on an island, very similar to the American Jeffrey Epstein's approach, with the difference that here sexual services were obtained through regular rapes instead of prostitution with minors that Epstein engaged in.
Nygård, according to the women, used his private jet «N-Force» to fly women to SPA treatments in the Bahamas and refused to fly them home again unless they had sex with him.
«When women were to be flown on SPA trips to the Bahamas on the N-Force plane, the passengers had their passports taken care of, their return flight was canceled by travel agency staff and Nygård's approval was required to leave Nygard Cay,» the women's attorney writes in a human trafficking case that simultaneously pending in a US court.
«Nygard expected sex before he was willing to let someone go home. Once Nygard chose his victims for the night, his employees were instructed to drug the victims by putting Rohypnol and/or other mind-altering drugs in their drinks, and then escort the victims to Nygard's bedroom.»
Quite as startling information was not included in the indictment in Canada. But prosecutor Neville Golwalla argued that the accusations in themselves constituted evidence because they were similar and showed a «behaviour pattern» by Nygård.
After the media attention, hundreds of women have come forward to say that they too — only now — realized that they want to report that they were raped by Nygård. In the USA and Canada, more similar lawsuits may appear shortly.
One of those who previously accused Nygård of being sexually interested in women is the Finnish strip and nude model Linda Lampenius, who in connection with the verdict made a comeback in the Finnish media.
She told during the 90s about Peter Nygård's attempt to pick her up and take her to a party where there were prostitutes, and she was sued after the fashion mogul's statements in a court in the USA for defamation.
However, she never directed any allegations of sex crimes against Nygård.