Comment | The horror story of more than half a century came to a stop when Nygård heard his first sentence

It was depressing information when you first came across it. Canadian-Finnish fashion millionaire Peter Nygaard was arrested for the first time in 1968 for a suspected sexual crime against a woman in Winnipeg, Canada.

of the CBC channel charges had been brought against Nygård, but the woman who accused Nygård did not agree to testify at the trial. The matter dried up.

After that, Nygård was a free man for another 52 years. He created for himself a fashion empire producing women’s clothes worth hundreds of millions of euros, under whose protection he attracted women to his homes, offices and parties. According to countless allegations, to rape them.

Over Over the past four and a half years, 120 women from various countries and backgrounds have accused Nygård of raping them. One of them was a woman from Helsinkiwho said that Nygård raped her in a hotel room in Helsinki in the 1980s when she was a 17-year-old high school student.

In the Bahamas, some of Nygård’s victims were allegedly 14 and 15 years old. One of the victims was a top model Beverly Peelewho has said that she became pregnant as a result of rape and gave birth to a son.

Peel off told me in an interview more than three years ago, how Nygård persuaded him to sign a three-year modeling contract with Nygård’s fashion company in 2003. After the contract was signed, Peele wanted to go to the bathroom.

Peele said Nygård followed her to the bathroom and raped her, causing Peele to become pregnant. At that time, the dark-skinned Peele was preparing for his wedding. The wedding took place, but her marriage collapsed due to Peele’s feelings of guilt. She didn’t dare tell her black husband why they had a very light-skinned child.

Nygård has denied the accusations of the women in the class action, and these cases have not been heard in court.

On Monday however, the horror story of more than half a century came to some sort of interim settlement when the 83-year-old Nygård was sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexual crimes against four women in Toronto. It was Nygård’s first criminal conviction.

Nygård used his vast wealth to buy or threaten women into silence. He also threatened the media and brought, for example, a rare criminal case against the Canadian CBC channel, which could have brought journalists a maximum of five years in prison. Also the Finnish media and, for example, a violinist From Linda Lampenius he embers with his army of lawyers.

It is one of the largest series of suspected sexual crimes in recent history. It seems incredibly sad that Nygård, who spent his childhood in Helsinki and moved to Canada with his parents at the age of ten, could continue his criminal activities for so long.

Serial crime made at least three things possible. First, the victims were afraid of Nygård or ashamed of what happened and kept quiet. Secondly, Nygård had numerous helpers who enabled the rapes and other crimes and their concealment.

Some paid poor Bahamian girls to keep quiet. Others in Nygård’s companies monitored Nygård’s reputation and were always on the offensive if any media or private individual threatened their boss. Some hid his money and transferred it from one company to another, and today it is completely unclear in whose hands Nygård’s remaining millions are.

And third: the authorities were asleep in both the United States and Canada. In the Bahamas, many politicians and police chiefs were allegedly bought to keep quiet so that the crimes that took place in connection with the lavish parties at Nygård’s huge mansion would not come to light.

In the United States, the federal police FBI and the Department of Homeland Security investigated the allegations against Nygård for a while, but left the investigations unfinished. Nothing was done in Canada for decades.

Nygårdin fate befell his even richer neighbor in the Bahamas, a billionaire Louis Bacon. He helped US attorneys gather evidence and statements that formed the basis of a class action lawsuit filed against Nygård in February 2020.

“Bacon is a hero. Without him, none of this would have happened,” Nygård’s son I guess Bickle said in my interview in February 2021.

The hero is Bickle himself. He turned against his father as soon as he first heard about his father’s crimes a few years ago. He started from Nygård secretly helping victims, lawyers and authorities to catch Nygård.

A class action lawsuit filed in New York set off a snowball effect that alerted US authorities. Only new women from different parts of the world joined the lawsuit and in the end there were more than 120 women involved.

The horror stories of the class action spurred US authorities to demand that Canada arrest Nygård and extradite him to the United States. Nygård was indicted by federal authorities on suspicion of human trafficking and other crimes.

Nygård was arrested for an extradition hearing in Winnipeg in December 2020. Prior to that, the partners of his fashion company fell out one after another until the companies drifted into bankruptcy and debt restructuring.

The vigilance of the US authorities made the Canadians nervous. A large part of Nygård’s crimes had taken place in Canada. So the local authorities began to hunt down the victims and now lawsuits have been filed against Nygård in three different provinces.

On Monday the verdict was the first stop in a long and multi-stage legal process. A class action lawsuit by more than 120 women is waiting in Häntäpää, which will hardly ever go to court.

Many of Nygård’s victims will receive justice only indirectly. As the Toronto trial heard, Nygård’s actions have left scars on the women from which they are unlikely to ever heal.

Some of the victims may be comforted by the knowledge that Nygård will hardly see another day in freedom. Nygård tried his best to silence the women, but failed.