LONDON (AP) — Police in London mentioned Friday that 40 extra ladies have made allegations of rape or sexual attack in opposition to the past due Harrods proprietor Mohamed Al Fayed for the reason that BBC broadcast claims by means of a number of former staff of the London division retailer final month.The Metropolitan Police pressure mentioned it had gained allegations “in the case of 40 victim-survivors and protecting offenses together with sexual attack and rape” going down between 1979 and 2013.They’re along with the 21 ladies who went to the police between 2005 and 2023 with intercourse crime allegations in opposition to the businessman. He was once by no means prosecuted and died final yr elderly 94.Police prompt sufferers of Al Fayed and someone with details about offenses to file it. Commander Stephen Clayman mentioned detectives would overview the ideas “to peer if there are any allegations of criminal activity that may be pursued.”
Police and Harrods executives are dealing with questions on why motion wasn’t taken in opposition to Al Fayed whilst he was once alive. He was once puzzled by means of detectives in 2008 over the alleged sexual abuse of a 15-year-old, and in 2009 and 2015 police handed information of proof about him to the Crown Prosecution Provider. He was once by no means charged.
The present managing director of Harrods, Michael Ward, mentioned final month that the shop was once “deeply sorry” for failing staff. He mentioned it’s transparent Al Fayed “presided over a poisonous tradition of secrecy, intimidation, concern of repercussion and sexual misconduct.”
Al Fayed’s circle of relatives has no longer commented.The Egypt-born businessman moved to Britain within the Nineteen Sixties and purchased Harrods, an upmarket retail emporium in London’s tony Knightsbridge district, within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. Al Fayed offered Harrods in 2010 to an organization owned by means of the state of Qatar thru its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Funding Authority.He changed into a well known determine thru his possession of the shop and the London football staff Fulham. He was once ceaselessly within the headlines after his son Dodi was once killed along Princess Diana in a automobile crash in Paris in 1997.
Al Fayed spent years selling the conspiracy principle that the royal circle of relatives had organized the twist of fate as a result of they didn’t approve of Diana relationship an Egyptian.An inquest concluded that Diana and Dodi died on account of the reckless movements in their motive force — an worker of the Ritz Resort in Paris owned by means of Al Fayed — and paparazzi chasing the couple. Separate inquiries in the UK and France additionally concluded there was once no conspiracy.
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