Prince Andrew must meet with FBI investigators again after the Duke of York’s friend and fashion mogul Peter Nygard was convicted of four counts of sexual assault.
Nygard – who once hosted Andrew in the Bahamas – was found guilty of assaulting four women in his Toronto home after luring them into a room without a doorknob.
The 82-year-old Canadian designer was convicted on Sunday after a six-week trial.
Now victims of Prince Andrew’s friend, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, have accused the prince of being dishonest because he claimed to want to help them get justice.
Spencer Kuvin, who represents several women abused by Epstein, told The Mirror: “If Prince Andrew is innocent, he should give a full interview to the FBI.”
Prince Andrew (pictured) must meet with FBI investigators again after the Duke of York’s friend and fashion mogul Peter Nygard was convicted of four counts of sexual assault
Peter Nygard (pictured) – who once hosted Andrew in the Bahamas – was found guilty of assaulting four women in his Toronto home after luring them into a room without a doorknob
“His continued silence in the face of the sexual assault convictions of several close friends – Ghislaine Maxwell and now Peter Nygard – smacks of guilt.”
Another victim of Epstein’s abuse, 35, said: “Andrew’s words were just hollow. “It’s clear to many that he never intended to help any of us.”
Andrew reportedly agreed to a £12million payout to Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was “Epstein’s sex slave” and said the Duke had slept with her. Andrew denied the claims and admitted no liability.
Nygard appeared emotionless as the verdict was announced after the jury’s fifth day of deliberations.
Prosecutors said he used his “status” to attack five women aged 16 to 28 in a series of incidents between the late 1980s and 2005. Nygard denied the allegations and his defense lawyers branded his accusers “gold diggers.”
However, he was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault. He was acquitted of one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible imprisonment.
During the month-and-a-half trial, the jury heard graphic statements from all five complainants, four of whom said they were in their late 20s when they were attacked and one who said she was 16 when the alleged attack took place.
Each of the women ended up in Nygard’s private bedroom.
Some of the women testified that there was a mirrored door leading into Nygard’s bedroom that had no handle on the inside, and that two of the doors leading to the outside of his bedroom had to be unlocked and opened by pressing a button in the room, or by entering a security code.
Peter Nygard, clockwise from bottom left, Judge Robert Goldstein, defense attorney Brian Greenspan, the jury, Ana Serban and Neville Golwalla attend Nygard’s sexual assault trial in Toronto
Peter Nygard leaves court in a police car after being found guilty of four counts of sexual assault on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023, in Toronto
Two of the complainants told the court they felt trapped in that room because they believed there was no way out.
One of the women told the court she repeatedly asked Nygard to let her out of the room and that he eventually gave in. It was this accusation that led to the involuntary commitment charge.
The disgraced mogul testified in his own defense for five days. He said he couldn’t remember four of the five women, nor did he remember interacting with any of them.
He also claimed that the sexual misconduct allegations against him could not have been made because he would never engage in such behavior.
Nygard contradicted some of the complainants’ statements, arguing that there was a handle on the interior door of his private bedroom and denying that a person could be locked or locked inside.
Prosecutors closed their case on the grounds that Nygard’s testimony was inconsistent, unreliable and not credible and should be rejected.
In contrast, the prosecutor argued, the five women’s statements were consistent and the similarities in their stories were not coincidental, proving Nygard’s guilt.
However, Nygard’s lawyer argued that the five women’s statements lacked credibility.
Brian Greenspan – Nygard’s lawyer – told jurors they must carefully consider all the evidence and consider the “fatal flaw and lack of trustworthiness of the statements” of the five women.
This undated handout image from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dated Oct. 4, 2023 shows fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s offices in Toronto, including a top-floor bedroom suite where five women say he raped them
Seen through the window of a police vehicle, Finnish-Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard leaves a courthouse in Toronto on November 12, 2023, after being found guilty of four counts of sexual assault
Nygard, 82, was arrested in December 2020 on sex trafficking charges – he is the founder of one of Canada’s largest clothing brands
Crown attorneys Neville Golwalla (l) and Ana Serban address the media outside the Toronto courthouse on November 12, 2023, after former fashion mogul Peter Nygard was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault
Kai Bickle-Nygard, son of former fashion mogul Peter Nygard, speaks to the media outside the Toronto courthouse on November 12, 2023, after his father was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault
In addition to the trial, which ended Sunday, Nygard also faces a civil lawsuit in New York that is currently on hold. It involved 57 women and the allegations date back to 1977. Some of them claim that they were attacked during this period when they were young at 14 or 15 years old.
Because of the charges in New York, he is fighting extradition to the USA.
He faces a number of other charges across Canada relating to other alleged sexual misconduct and assaults.
Nygard was born in Finland and grew up in Canada. He was the founder of Nygard International, once Canada’s largest manufacturer of women’s clothing.
Before the mogul was arrested, his company employed 1,450 people and operated more than 150 stores in North America and more than 6,000 department store stores.
In 2020, the company began to unravel when 10 unnamed plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court accusing the elderly businessman of raping women and underage girls at his Bahamas estate.
The lawsuit was then expanded to include 57 unnamed accusers.
The Duke of York visited the Canadian businessman at his home in the Bahamas in 2000, shortly after Nygard settled out of court with three employees who had accused him of sexual harassment.