Harrods ‘magical wonderland’ became a place of horror for young Australian women

Australian survivors of the Harrods sex scandal have detailed how they were scouted, groomed and sexually assaulted by former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed. Some were also abused by his brother, Ali Fayed, while they were working at the luxurious London department store.

More than 250 women, including 14 Australians, say they were assaulted by the now-deceased Egyptian billionaire, whose son Dodi Fayed died in a car crash in Paris alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, after 20 British women featured in a UK documentary about the former Harrods boss in September.

Anne-Marie Kruk with Mohamed Al-Fayed when she was at Harrods.Credit: 60 Minutes

One of those Australians to break their silence about the abuse, Anne-Marie Kruk, was 21 when she left Canberra in 2005 to live in London and embark on a career in marketing.

Speaking exclusively to 60 Minutes, Kruk said she couldn’t believe her luck when she landed a job in the company’s store approvals department, describing Harrods as “magical” and her appointment a “dream come true”.

A second Australian, Kim, who does not want her real name used to protect her identity, also recalled the pride she felt when offered a job on the shop floor of Harrods in 1994.

“Harrods for me, for as long as I can remember, was this magical wonderland. Like, you entered those heavy doors and you were instantly transported to a different time,” she said. “I remember, still to this day the Harrods motto, Omnia Omnibus Ubique, which means ‘All things to all people everywhere’.”

But behind the glitz and glamour of the world’s most famous department store, Harrods was rotten to the core, as Al-Fayed targeted hundreds of female employees over his quarter-century reign at the British institution.

Anne-Marie Kruk was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Mohamed Al-Fayed in his office at Harrods.Credit: 60 Minutes

“The chairman’s modus operandi was to get someone in the door and then start sexually abusing them,” Kruk said. “So it was almost like as soon as he had, or as soon as he felt he had some sense of ownership over you, then he felt he was at liberty to do what he wanted.”

In 1994, Kim had been on the fashion floor of Harrods for just three days before being whisked to Al-Fayed’s office and promoted to become his personal assistant.

One requirement of the Harrods boss, a renowned germaphobe, was for his staff to undergo a medical examination. But Kim said the so-called regular check-up was far more invasive than she had been told. She was expected to undergo a full gynaecological examination and an HIV test. She had the smear test but refused the HIV test.

Kruk was also directed to have a medical examination after being promoted to the chair’s office as his assistant. It was her first smear test and, like Kim, she had not been informed that the medical would be an internal examination. She described the event as “traumatic” and “an invasion of her privacy and body”.

“(Mohamed Al-Fayed) was someone who had an obsession with hygiene in general, and I think that extended to every part of you. And because he was a serial sexual abuser, it was obvious that he was doing it to make sure that if he decided to do something with you, that you were clean,” she said.

The now 41-year-old said it was after the gynaecological screening that the Harrods chair began propositioning her.

“He would talk to you about how he could help you in your career and then, you know, give you some money and say, ‘Go and buy yourself something nice’. And so that was kind of how the grooming process started. And then it evolved from there. Starting to kiss you on the mouth, not on the cheek. Or starting to put his hand down your top and squeeze, put his hand on your leg.”

Harrods was a “magical wonderland” that became a place of horror.

Like Kruk, Kim was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Al-Fayed in his office at Harrods. The attacks could occur up to two or three times a week.

“He would stand up from his armchair and walk towards me,” she said. “He would grab my breasts, squeeze, grope my breasts. He would make noises as he did so, clearly getting pleasure, satisfaction. He’d go to kiss me on the lips and I’d turn, and so his lips would be on my face.”

But it was at his apartment and offices on Park Lane in the London suburb of Mayfair that the billionaire predator would unleash his worst, attempting to rape Kim twice and Kruk once.

The attack Kruk endured at Park Lane in October 2006 still haunts her.

“He asked me to do something sexually explicit to him and it was just disgusting, and it made me feel cheap. It made me feel dirty,” she said. “And he tried to, he tried to force me down and I managed to somehow get myself out of his grip. And I’m feeling extremely vulnerable and know that if I make him really angry, then I’ll lose my job.”

Much like Kruk’s experience, Kim said she was summoned to Al-Fayed’s Park Lane offices under the pretence of work.

Mohamed Al-Fayed with Princess Diana at a polo match in 1987. Credit: Archives

When she arrived, she was directed to a private suite. When she was alone with the chair, he demanded she “clean herself”.

“That’s when I knew what was about to happen,” she said. “I smelled like Dettol. He told me to get undressed and told me to lie on the bed. You think rape’s something that happens at night, down a dark alleyway by some strange, faceless, bad man. You don’t think it comes from the people that are there to protect you.”

For Kim, the horror didn’t end there. In new allegations, she is one of three women who say they were not only sexually assaulted by Mohamed Al-Fayed but also by his younger brother, Ali Fayed.

“He told me that his brother wanted to see me. He told me with a smirk on his face, like there was great delight. He was getting some perverse sense of satisfaction,” Kim said.

Kim was again ordered to go to Park Lane, where she was led into a room where she met Ali Fayed for the first time.

“I was taken into a dining room. I remember a round table. And it was set up for two, and Ali Fayed was there. It was set up like a date. He produced a bottle of French red wine from the year that I was born. And he said, ‘Look at the year. This is the year you were born’. And I thought, ‘How does he know that about me?’.

“When he’d eaten, Ali instructed me into a bedroom. He told me to get on the bed. I was petrified, going through the same ordeal.”

The necklace given to Kim by Ali Fayed before the alleged assault.Credit: 60 Minutes

Kim alleges that Ali Fayed digitally penetrated her. She believes her unresponsiveness led to him to stop.

“I was frozen. I was numb. I was scared,” she said. “I didn’t look like someone on a date having a good time. I looked like I was petrified. He told me I could go, and I got out of there, and I walked, and I walked, and I walked the streets, and I never saw him again.”

A few days later, she said she saw Mohamed Al-Fayed, who asked whether she had a “good time” with his brother.

Amy McIlquham when she was 21 and working at Harrods. Credit: 60 Minutes

Along with the bottle of wine, Ali Fayed also gave Kim an 18-carat gold and garnet beaded necklace she has kept hidden away for decades for self-protection. The necklace was recently valued at more than $12,000.

Amy McIlquham (who is not Australian) has also told 60 Minutes that she, too, was assaulted by Ali Fayed in 1994 while working as a personal assistant for Mohamed Al-Fayed.

She said six months after the Harrod’s chair attempted to rape her at his mansion, Villa Windsor, in Paris, he ordered her to go on a business trip with his younger brother to Gstaad in Switzerland.

But when the 21-year-old arrived at the Swiss chalet, there was no work to do. Instead, Al-Fayed took her for a swim and sexually assaulted her.

“It was just the arms coming around from behind; the pulling in, the reaching at your waist, your legs, your backside, pulling in. You are feeling so upset and so scared in that moment. I can’t begin to describe that humiliation,” she said.

A spokesman for Ali Fayed said he “unequivocally denies any and all” allegations of wrongdoing and that “the alleged incidents simply never occurred”.

Amy McIlquham says Mohamed Al-Fayed attempted to rape her at his mansion in Paris.Credit: 60 Minutes

British barrister Maria Mulla, a member of Justice for Harrods Survivors group representing alleged victims, said the three women who had contacted her team with the sexual assault allegations against Ali were credible.

Justice for Harrods Survivors is also investigating accusations made by other former department store employees against another of Mohamed’s brothers, Salah, who died in 2010.

Lawyers with the Justice for Harrods Survivors legal team said the scale of the abuse was staggering and might constitute the world’s worst case of corporate sexual abuse.

“Mohamed Al-Fayed was one of the most powerful men in the world. Whatever Mohamed Al-Fayed wanted, he got,” Mulla said.

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