Ex-Winnipeggers who accused Nygard of sex crimes not surprised by Epstein link

Two former Winnipeg residents who accused Peter Nygard of rape and a therapist who supports survivors weren’t surprised when the convicted sex offender’s name emerged in new Epstein files Tuesday.

The U.S. Justice Department released a letter revealing the FBI and New York prosecutors’ attempt to interview disgraced former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in separate criminal investigations into former fashion mogul Nygard and infamous pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“Everybody keeps asking me, amongst my friends, how I feel about things. How I feel about things is how completely unsurprising any of it is,” KC Allan, a former model who accused Nygard of raping her in 1979, when she was 17, told the Free Press.

“I find a lot of the interest in the Epstein files to be prurient, and I’m not sure how far it advances the notion of justice for these victims. I find it offensive that we’re all so excited to learn that so and so was in a hot tub with (Epstein). I feel like it has become entertainment versus justice.”

Model and actress April Telek, who accused Nygard of raping her in his Winnipeg warehouse in 1993, said the news reflected “a deeply troubling, all-too-familiar pattern.”

“While I don’t know anything personally about the relationship between Nygard, Prince Andrew and Epstein, it seems almost expected that when extreme wealth and influence operate in small, protected circles, accountability disappears,” she said.

“As someone who came forward as a victim of Peter Nygard, I have lived this reality firsthand.”

Telek’s sexual assault case was stayed in October after a judge ruled his right to a fair trial had been breached due to lost evidence.

“The system repeatedly shields the powerful while survivors are left to carry the burden,” Telek said. “It’s infuriating, it’s unjust, and sadly, it is not new.”

The U.S. government has released tens of thousands of documents related to Epstein after facing pressure and calls for transparency from the public and politicians.

The 66-year-old disgraced jet-setting money manager died by suicide in his New York federal jail cell in August 2019 following his arrest weeks earlier on federal sex trafficking charges.

The April 3, 2020 letter from U.S. justice officials asked U.K. authorities to arrange a voluntary interview with Mountbatten-Windsor.

“In the event that the witness declines to participate in a voluntary interview, U.S. authorities request that U.K. authorities conduct a compelled interview of the witness under oath,” the letter said.

Investigators wanted to question him about his relationship with Nygard, any trips the pair took together and any visits to Nygard’s estate in the Bahamas, two condominiums in Marina del Rey, Calif., and the Manhattan headquarters of Nygard International, which was founded in Winnipeg.

They wanted the then-royal to disclose the names and/or descriptions of any women or girls he met through Nygard, now 84, or at Nygard’s properties.

“The U.S. authorities are investigating Peter Nygard, a Canadian citizen, and other co-conspirators’ involvement in an international sex trafficking ring victimizing adult women and minor girls,” the letter said.

“The investigation concerns, among other things, allegations of sex trafficking at various locations inside and outside the United States, including Nygard’s estate in Lyford Cay, Bahamas, referred to as ‘Nygard Cay.’”

The investigation found Mountbatten-Windsor, now 65, visited Nygard’s estate at least once. The then-prince, wife Sarah Ferguson and their daughters, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were children at the time, visited the hideaway in 2000, U.K. and U.S. media previously reported.

“Prince Andrew is not presently a target of this investigation, and U.S. authorities have not, to date, collected evidence that he committed any crime under U.S. law,” the letter said.

Allan and a friend read media coverage of the Epstein files shortly before she learned of the letter Tuesday. Allan said they wondered if Nygard and Epstein — both “apex sexual predators” — knew each other.

The letter did not indicate a direct link between the men.

“We know these predators’ playbooks, and we also know that not only did they groom their victims, they groomed their societal influences around them and their colleagues to facilitate all of this kind of systemic abuse,” Allan said. “It didn’t happen as a stand-alone enterprise.”

“We know these predators’ playbooks… they groomed their societal influences around them and their colleagues to facilitate all of this kind of systemic abuse.”

Toronto-based therapist Shannon Moroney, who has supported women who reported being sexually assaulted by Nygard, said the contents of the letter were distressing but not surprising.

Multiple clients have told her that Mountbatten-Windsor and his family were guests at Nygard Cay, she said.

Moroney said she has never heard any allegations the former prince was involved in any wrongdoing in the presence of Nygard or at his properties.

“Only that he was there (at Nygard Cay) and they were friends,” she said.

Nygard has denied allegations of sexual assault and other crimes. He is serving an 11-year prison sentence after he was found guilty in Toronto in 2023 of four counts of sexual assault for crimes that happened between the 1980s and mid-2000s. He has filed an appeal.

He is facing a trial in Montreal on charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement for alleged offences there between 1997 and 1998.

Nygard was first arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 after U.S. federal prosecutors in New York charged him with nine offences, including sex trafficking and racketeering. The charges are still before the courts. Nygard is facing extradition to the U.S. when legal cases in Canada are resolved.

Moroney said the impacts on survivors are “twofold” when new information about Nygard emerges.

“When this comes up, maybe someone is having a good day — they’re just sitting eating breakfast and then there he is on the screen, there’s his name again,” she said. “It’s like a hook that can pull that survivor right back into the past and right back into their own attack.”

“When this comes up, maybe someone is having a good day… they’re just sitting eating breakfast and then there he is on the screen, there’s his name again.”

Moroney said it can take hours or days for the survivor to “re-regulate,” depending on where the survivor is in their healing journey, and they often need to seek professional help.

On the other hand, many survivors feel the public has forgotten about what they’ve gone through or they think Nygard’s legal matters are finished, she said.

“They want the public to know not only has the criminal justice system not finished its job yet, but certainly the survivor needs have not been met in much way at all, other than the safety of knowing he is behind bars,” Moroney said.

Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, claimed he and his confidant, convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, trafficked her to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor and other men from the age of 17.

Mountbatten-Windsor denied having sex with Giuffre and any wrongdoing related to Epstein. He has not been charged with a crime.

His older brother, King Charles, stripped him of his “prince” title, other honours and his Windsor estate earlier this year.

Giuffre, 41, died by suicide in April.

— with files from Malak Abas

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

DOJ file