Former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed has been accused of rape, with 5 feminine ex-employees alleging the late billionaire sexually assaulted them whereas accountable for the luxurious London division retailer.
A brand new BBC documentary says the Egyptian-born businessman – who died in London aged 94 in August 2023 – carried out the assaults throughout his time accountable for the outlet between 1984 and its sale in 2010.
The company says greater than 20 feminine former employees at Harrods have come ahead to accuse him of sexual abuse and presiding over a ‘tradition of worry’ on the division retailer.
A few of these concerned declare they had been coerced into present process invasive medical exams through which they had been examined for sexually transmitted ailments, with the outcomes being despatched on to Al Fayed himself.
Harrowing particulars of the accusations, together with vivid descriptions of the alleged rapes by the ladies, had been proven on a brand new programme known as Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods – together with claims the agency itself not solely did not intervene to assist the alleged victims but additionally lined up their claims.
The shop’s present homeowners have now instructed of being ‘totally appalled’ by the accusations and have apologised to the ladies affected.
Former Harrods proprietor Mohamed Al Fayed has been accused of sexual assault by a number of ladies together with one, Gemma, who labored as his private assistant between 2007 and 2009
A brand new BBC documentary says the Egyptian-born businessman – who died in London aged 94 final August – carried out the assaults whereas Harrods boss between 1984 and its sale in 2010
The company says greater than 20 feminine former employees at Harrods have come ahead to accuse Al Fayed (pictured) of sexual abuse
Bruce Drummond, a barrister representing a number of the ex-employees, mentioned: ‘The spider’s internet of corruption and abuse on this firm was unbelievable and really darkish.
‘Any place of business has an obligation to make sure the security of its workers. With out query, the corporate failed these women.
‘That is why we step in. As a result of they only did nothing to really forestall this. They did the other. They enabled it.’
The alleged assaults are mentioned to have occurred not solely in London together with at his Mayfair flat within the capital but additionally in Paris, on the Ritz resort which he owned, and St Tropez in France in addition to Abu Dhabi within the United Arab Emirates.
Rachel, not her actual identify, instructed the BBC she was raped after staying at one among Mr Al Fayed’s residences after a late shift at work.
She mentioned: ‘I made it apparent that I did not need that to occur. I didn’t give consent. I simply needed it to be over.
‘I keep in mind feeling his physique on me, the load of him. Simply listening to him make these noises. And simply going some other place in my head.’
One other girl instructed of being raped on the Mayfair handle as a teen, describing workers at Harrods as being handled as his ‘playthings’.
She mentioned: ‘Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no ethical compass in any way.
‘We had been all so scared. He actively cultivated worry. If he mentioned “bounce”, workers would ask, “How excessive?”‘
Certainly one of his alleged victims was named as Gemma, who labored for Al Fayed as a private assistant between 2007 and 2009 – and tells how his behaviour would flip extra scary throughout work journeys overseas.
She says he raped her at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne, a former dwelling of post-abdication King Edward VIII and his spouse Wallis Simpson.
Certainly one of his alleged victims, Gemma, who labored for Al Fayed as a private assistant between 2007 and 2009, says his behaviour would flip extra horrifying throughout work journeys overseas
She says he raped her at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne, a former dwelling of post-abdication King Edward VIII and his spouse Wallis Simpson
Gemma described her former boss Fayed to the brand new BBC investigation as ‘a serial rapist’
Mohamed Al Fayed, former proprietor of Harrods and Fulham FC, is pictured right here in 2018
Mohamed Al Fayed pictured alongside Diana, Princess of Wales at a charity occasion held at Harrods in London in 1996
She described waking as much as discover him trying to get into mattress together with her, including: ‘I instructed him, “No, I do not need you to”.
‘And he proceeded to simply maintain attempting to get within the mattress, at which level he was form of on high of me and [I] actually could not transfer anyplace.
‘I used to be form of face down on the mattress and he simply pressed himself on me.’
She added: ‘I believe Mohamed Al Fayed is a rapist – he’s a serial rapist.’
Within the documentary some ladies declare they had been coerced into present process invasive medical exams, through which they had been examined for sexually transmitted ailments with the outcomes despatched to Al Fayed himself.
One girl instructed filmmakers: ‘There isn’t a profit to anyone realizing how my sexual well being is, except you are planning to sleep with any individual, which I discover fairly chilling now.’
Fayed was accused of sexual assault when alive, however the BBC now says it believes many extra ladies might have been victims of him.
Eamon Coyle, who joined Harrods as a retailer detective in 1979 and was its deputy director of safety between 1989 and 1995, instructed the BBC: ‘We had been conscious that he had this very robust curiosity in younger ladies.’
The BBC mentioned it heard testimony from 13 ladies who say they had been sexually assaulted at Fayed’s 60 Park Lane property in London, 4 of whom allege they had been raped there.
Harrods started settling claims with ladies who got here ahead alleging to have been sexually abused at his palms in July final yr.
Harrods mentioned in a press release to the BBC: ‘The Harrods of in the present day is a really totally different organisation to the one owned and managed by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010.
‘I made it apparent that I did not need that to occur. I didn’t give consent. I simply needed it to be over,’ she mentioned,
‘I keep in mind feeling his physique on me, the load of him. Simply listening to him make these noises. And simply going some other place in my head.’
‘It’s one which seeks to place the welfare of our workers on the coronary heart of all the pieces we do.
‘Since new data got here to gentle in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our precedence to settle claims within the quickest means doable.
A few of Fayed’s assaults are mentioned to have been carried out at his Park Lane property in London
One of many ladies now talking out, who says Fayed raped her at his London condo instructed BBC investigators: ‘I made it apparent that I did not need that to occur. ‘I didn’t give consent. I simply needed it to be over’
Mohamed Al Fayed pictured along with his spouse Heini Wathen in 2016. The couple had 4 kids
Mr Al Fayed (proper) with Prince Charles (along with his again to digital camera) and Diana throughout a Harrods-sponsored polo match in 1987
Mohamed Al Fayed with the Queen in 1997. His enterprise connections and charity work noticed him mixing with excessive society regardless of his complaints about what he noticed as institution bias
‘This course of continues to be obtainable for any present or former Harrods workers.
‘Whereas we can not undo the previous, we’ve got been decided to do the correct factor as an organisation, pushed by the values we maintain in the present day, whereas making certain that such behaviour can by no means be repeated sooner or later.’
The Ritz resort in Paris, previously owned by Fayed, instructed the the BBC that it ‘strongly condemns all types of behaviour that don’t align with the values of the institution’.
Fayed was born in Alexandria in 1929 and moved to the UK within the Sixties, turning into an early driving pressure within the growth of Dubai.
He later purchased Home of Fraser, together with Harrods, along with his brothers, in addition to the Ritz resort in Paris, which he owned up till his dying.
He had begun his profession promoting fizzy drinks after which labored as a sewing-machine salesman.
He constructed his household’s fortune in actual property, transport and development, first within the Center East after which in Europe – aided by connections along with his first spouse Samira Khashoggi’s arms vendor brother Adnan Khashoggi.
A mixture of constructing a enterprise empire within the UK and establishing a charitable basis noticed him mixing with the UK’s most illustrious figures – from stars to royalty.
Fayed is believed to have met Diana, Princess of Wales, and the then-Prince Charles at a polo match within the Nineteen Eighties – and thru this connection launched her to his son Dodi.
The second of their assembly was immortalised in a later season of the hit Netflix drama, The Crown, through which the Egyptian businessman was performed by Israeli actor Salim Daw.
One episode charted his rise to fame and his eventual assembly with Diana, though his alleged victims have slammed the sympathetic portrayal of him on the present.
One tearful girl instructed documentary makers: ‘It simply makes him look so humorous and gregarious, and he might flip that on, but it surely wasn’t proper. And that makes me indignant, folks should not keep in mind him like that, that is not how he was.’
In later years he grew to become consumed with pursuing investigations into the crash which killed Dodi and Diana on August 31 1997 – virtually precisely 26 years earlier than his personal dying.
Diana – who was divorced from Charles in 1992 – and Dodi had been pictured collectively in St Tropez in 1997, sparking rumours of romance.
Amongst these giving testimony to the BBC is Gemma who says Fayed raped her at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne (pictured), former dwelling of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson
Mohammed Al Fayed (proper) with son Dodi at a celebration for the movie Hook in 1992
The present homeowners of luxurious division retailer Harrods in London (pictured) have issued a press release saying: ‘Whereas we can not undo the previous, we’ve got been decided to do the correct factor as an organisation, pushed by the values we maintain in the present day, whereas making certain that such behaviour can by no means be repeated sooner or later’
The pair then travelled collectively as they sought to depart the Ritz Lodge in Paris on the fateful morning of August 31 that yr.
The youthful Al-Fayed and the Princess of Wales had been being pushed away from paparazzi by Henri Paul, the deputy head of safety on the resort, when Paul misplaced management of the automotive and struck a pillar at a pace of about 65mph.
Dodi’s father Fayed opened his personal personal investigation into the crash after being dissatisfied with the official investigations – and promoted a sequence of conspiracy theories alleging that the institution had a hand of their deaths.
However a 2008 inquest concluded that Dodi and Diana had been unlawfully killed by a mixture of Paul’s driving drunk, the actual fact neither had been carrying seatbelts and the erratic driving of paparazzi pursuing them.