Harrods staff accuse Al Fayed of rape

Mohamed Al Fayed was free to rape and sexually abuse his young assistants for at least 20 years because of a ‘web of corruption’ at his Harrods department store, it has been claimed.

Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed was a confidant of the late Princess Diana, and his son Dodi died alongside her in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Picture: Shaun Curry / AFP

Mohamed Al Fayed was free to rape and sexually abuse his young assistants for at least 20 years because of a “web of corruption” at his Harrods department store, it has been claimed.

Women who claim that they were attacked came forward yesterday (Thursday) after a BBC documentary identified at least 20 alleged victims of the tycoon, including five who described being raped.

Scotland Yard later revealed three previously unknown allegations against Al Fayed that were investigated but did not result in charges. Today (Friday) lawyers for the alleged victims will detail further claims of abuse.

Harrods said it was “appalled by the allegations of abuse” as it emerged that Britain’s most prestigious department store had been paying compensation to alleged victims since last year.

A former senior Metropolitan Police detective along with Harrods’s corporate doctor were accused of being complicit in the grooming of victims and covering up the billionaire’s abuse.

Some of the alleged victims said that they were making their experiences public because of the sympathetic portrayal of Al Fayed when the Netflix series The Crown dramatised the relationship between his son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess of Wales.

The businessman, who died aged 94 in August last year, bought Harrods in 1985. He sold it to the Qatari royal family in 2010 for a reported pounds 1.5 billion. He was also the former owner of Fulham FC and the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

Allegations of his sexual abuse first became public in the late 1980s. Although he was questioned in 2008 about the sexual harassment of a 15-year-old schoolgirl who worked at Harrods he was never charged.

Five women who worked for Mohammed al-Fayed at Harrods have accused him of rape with a further 15 accusing him of sexual abuse.

Sir Keir Starmer was the director of public prosecutions in February 2009 when the Crown Prosecution Service said no charges would be brought because there was “no realistic prospect of conviction”. A Downing Street spokesman said: “Keir did not handle this case. It did not cross his desk.”

Bruce Drummond, a barrister representing some of the women in their compensation claims against Harrods, told the BBC: “The spider’s web of abuse and corruption in the company was unbelievable and very dark ... without question, Harrods failed these ladies.”

Women recruited in their teens and early twenties to work as personal assistants in Al Fayed’s private office said that they were required by Wendy Snell, who was the corporate GP for Harrods, to undertake medicals that included intimate examinations.

They were told it was because of Dodi’s weak immune system but later realised that it was preparing them for sexual abuse by his father, who was obsessed with hygiene.

They recalled how when they worked late he would encourage them to spend the night in an apartment block he owned in Park Lane, Mayfair.

They were then invited to Al Fayed’s private apartment where he would appear wearing only a silk dressing gown, they told the documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods. Four women claimed Al Fayed raped them at the Park Lane apartment and 13 said they were sexually assaulted. Alice, who joined Harrods aged 16, recalled begging Al Fayed “please don’t do this” as he tried to rape her. Gemma, one of his personal assistants between 2007-09, said his behaviour became more frightening during work trips abroad. She said it culminated in her being raped at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne.

A Harrods HR manager from 1990-94 said she was ordered by Al Fayed’s senior assistant to find sales assistants he had seen in the store and send them to his office.

Tony Leeming, a department manager, said: “It was well known and everyone knew about it and it was a joke.”

Nine women say they were sexually assaulted by Al Fayed in Paris, including one who said she was raped.

Al Fayed’s security was led by John Macnamara, a former Scotland Yard detective chief superintendent. Alleged victims described being bugged, discovering there were cameras in the apartments, and being threatened by Macnamara if they complained.

Harrods said it had settled “a number of claims [from women] who alleged historic sexual misconduct by Al Fayed” over the past 18 months.

It said in a statement: “We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed. These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms.

“We acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise. The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed.”