BBCFive girls say they have been raped through former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed once they labored on the luxurious London division retailer.The BBC has heard testimony from greater than 20 feminine ex-employees who say the billionaire, who died final yr elderly 94, sexually assaulted or raped them.The documentary and podcast – Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods – amassed proof that, throughout Fayed’s possession, Harrods no longer handiest did not intrude, however helped quilt up abuse allegations.Harrods’ present homeowners stated they have been “completely appalled” through the allegations and that his sufferers have been failed – for which the shop sincerely apologised.“The spider’s internet of corruption and abuse on this corporate used to be incredible and really darkish,” says barrister Bruce Drummond, from a criminal workforce representing quite a lot of the ladies.Since this newsletter used to be first revealed, extra former Harrods workers have contacted the BBC announcing Mohammed Al Fayed assaulted them.Caution: this tale accommodates main points some might in finding distressing.The incidents came about in London, Paris, St Tropez and Abu Dhabi. “I made it evident that I did not need that to occur. I didn’t give consent. I simply sought after it to be over,” says some of the girls, who says Fayed raped her at his Park Lane condominium.Any other lady says she used to be a teen when he raped her on the Mayfair cope with.“Mohamed Al Fayed used to be a monster, a sexual predator and not using a ethical compass in anyway,” she says, including that all of the workforce at Harrods have been his “playthings”.“We have been all so scared. He actively cultivated worry. If he stated ‘bounce’ workers would ask ‘how top’.”Fayed confronted sexual attack claims whilst he used to be alive, however those allegations are of remarkable scale and seriousness. The BBC believes many extra girls could have been assaulted.’Fayed used to be vile’Fayed’s entrepreneurial profession started at the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, the place he hawked fizzy beverages to passers-by. However it used to be his marriage to the sister of a millionaire Saudi fingers broker that helped him forge new connections and construct a industry empire.He moved to the United Kingdom in 1974 and used to be already a well known public determine when he took over Harrods in 1985. Within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, he would steadily seem as a visitor on prime-time TV chat and leisure displays.In the meantime, Fayed – whose son Dodi used to be killed in a automobile crash along Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 – has transform recognized to a brand new era in the course of the two most up-to-date Netflix sequence of The Crown.
Getty ImagesFayed had courted the Royal Circle of relatives for yearsBut the ladies we’ve spoken to mention his portrayal as delightful and gregarious used to be some distance from the reality.“He used to be vile,” says some of the girls, Sophia, who labored as his non-public assistant from 1988 to 1991. She says he attempted to rape her greater than as soon as.“That makes me offended, folks should not have in mind him like that. It is not how he used to be.”One of the crucial girls waived, or in part waived, their proper to anonymity to be filmed – and the BBC agreed to not use surnames. Others selected to stay nameless. Put in combination, their testimonies divulge a development of predatory behaviour and sexual abuse through Fayed.The Harrods proprietor would steadily excursion the dept retailer’s huge gross sales flooring and establish younger feminine assistants he discovered sexy, who would then be promoted to paintings in his workplaces upstairs – former workforce, female and male, advised us.The attacks could be performed in Harrods’ workplaces, in Fayed’s London condominium, or on international journeys – regularly in Paris on the Ritz resort, which he additionally owned, or his within sight Villa Windsor assets.At Harrods, different former workforce contributors advised us it used to be transparent what used to be taking place.“All of us watched every different stroll via that door pondering, ‘you deficient lady, it is you lately’ and feeling completely powerless to forestall it,” Alice, no longer her actual title, says.’He raped me’Rachel, no longer her actual title, labored as a non-public assistant in Harrods within the Nineteen Nineties.One evening after paintings, she says she used to be known as to his luxurious condominium, in a big block on Park Lane overlooking London’s Hyde Park. The development used to be safe through safety workforce and had an on-site administrative center staffed through Harrods workers.Rachel says Fayed requested her to sit down on his mattress after which put his hand on her leg, making it transparent what he sought after.“I have in mind feeling his frame on me, the load of him. Simply listening to him make those noises. And… simply going in different places in my head.“He raped me.”The BBC has spoken to 13 girls who say Fayed sexually assaulted them at 60 Park Lane. 4 of them, together with Rachel, say they have been raped.Sophia, who says she used to be sexually assaulted, described the entire scenario as an inescapable nightmare.“I could not depart. I didn’t have a [family] house to return to, I needed to pay hire,” she says. “I knew I needed to undergo this and I didn’t wish to. It used to be terrible and my head used to be scrambled.”Watch: “The whole lot used to be shredded in entrance folks… tapes… nasty voicemails,” says GemmaGemma, who labored as considered one of Fayed’s non-public assistants between 2007-09, says his behaviour become extra scary throughout business trips in a foreign country.She says it culminated in her being raped at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne – a former house, post-abdication, of King Edward VIII and his spouse Wallis Simpson.Gemma says she aroused from sleep startled in her bed room. Fayed used to be subsequent to her mattress dressed in only a silk dressing robe. He then attempted to get into mattress along with her.“I advised him, ‘no, I do not want you to’. And he proceeded to simply stay seeking to get within the mattress, at which level he used to be roughly on best of me and [I] truly could not transfer any place.“I used to be roughly face down at the mattress and he simply pressed himself on me.”She says after Fayed raped her she cried, whilst he were given up and advised her aggressively to scrub herself with Dettol.“Clearly he sought after me to erase any hint of him being any place close to me,” she explains.8 different girls have additionally advised us they have been sexually assaulted through Fayed at his houses in Paris. 5 girls described the attacks as an tried rape.
Al-Fayed: Predator at HarrodsA BBC investigation into allegations of rape and tried rape through Mohamed Al Fayed, the previous proprietor of Harrods. Did the posh retailer give protection to a billionaire predator?Watch Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods on BBC iPlayer now or on BBC Two at 21:00 on Thursday 19 September. 
‘Open secret’“The abuse of ladies, I used to be acutely aware of it when I used to be at the store ground,” says Tony Leeming, a Harrods division supervisor from 1994 to 2004. It “wasn’t even a secret”, remembers Mr Leeming, who says he didn’t find out about extra critical allegations of attack or rape.”And I feel if I knew, everyone knew. Any person who says they did not are mendacity, I am sorry”.Mr Leeming’s testimony is sponsored up through former contributors of Fayed’s safety workforce.“We have been mindful that he had this very robust hobby in younger women,” says Eamon Coyle, who joined Harrods in 1979 as a shop detective, then become deputy director of safety from 1989-95.In the meantime Steve, who does no longer need us to make use of his surname, labored for the billionaire between 1994-95. He advised us that safety workforce “did know that sure issues have been taking place to sure feminine workers at Harrods and Park Lane”.Most of the girls advised us that once they started running at once for Fayed they underwent medicals – together with invasive sexual well being assessments performed through medical doctors.This used to be offered as a perk, the ladies advised us, however many didn’t see their very own effects – although they have been despatched to Fayed.“There is not any receive advantages to anyone realizing what my sexual well being is, until you might be making plans to sleep with any individual, which I in finding slightly chilling now,” says Katherine, who used to be an government assistant in 2005.’Tradition of worry’All of the girls we spoke to described having felt intimidated at paintings – which had made it tough for them to talk out.Sarah, no longer her actual title, defined: “There used to be maximum undoubtedly a tradition of worry throughout the entire retailer – from the lowliest of the low, to essentially the most senior individual.”Others advised us they believed the telephones in Harrods have been tapped – and that ladies have been frightened of speaking to one another about Fayed’s abuse, fearing they have been being filmed through hidden cameras.The ex-deputy director of safety, Eamon Coyle, showed this – explaining how a part of his task used to be to hear tapes of recorded calls. Cameras that would file had additionally been put in right through the shop, he stated, together with within the government suites.“He [Fayed] bugged everyone that he sought after to malicious program.”Harrods advised the BBC in a observation those have been the movements of a person “intent on abusing his energy” which it condemned within the most powerful phrases.It stated: “The Harrods of lately is an excessively other organisation to the only owned and regulated through Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it’s one who seeks to place the welfare of our workers on the center of the entirety we do.”
Getty ImagesHarrods’ new homeowners began settling claims with Fayed’s sufferers in 2023There have been quite a lot of makes an attempt to show Fayed prior to his demise – significantly through Vainness Truthful in 1995 – with a piece of writing alleging racism, workforce surveillance and sexual misconduct. This sparked a libel lawsuit.Mohamed Al Fayed later agreed to drop the case so long as all of the additional proof the mag had amassed of his sexual misconduct in preparation for an ordeal used to be locked away. Fayed’s agreement used to be negotiated through a senior Harrods government.In 1997, ITV’s The Giant Tale reported additional critical allegations together with sexual harassment and groping – which is classified as sexual attack.Some of the girls within the BBC investigation, Ellie, no longer her actual title, used to be 15 in 2008 when she reported an attack to the police – an allegation that made headlines – however didn’t lead to any price.In 2017, Channel 4’s Dispatches broadcast allegations of groping, attack and harassment, with one lady waiving her proper to anonymity for the primary time. It gave some girls the braveness to come back ahead – and used to be adopted through a 2018 investigation on Channel 4 Information.However it’s only now, with Mohamed Al Fayed having died final yr, that most of the girls have felt in a position to talk publicly about rape and tried rape.Money and NDAsThe BBC documentary unearths that, as a part of Gemma’s agreement in 2009, she needed to signal a non-disclosure settlement (NDA), a legally-binding contract which guarantees knowledge stays confidential.She says after she used to be raped, she contacted a attorney who advised Harrods she used to be leaving her task at the grounds of sexual harassment. Gemma says she didn’t really feel in a position, at the moment, to reveal the whole extent and seriousness of Fayed’s attacks.Harrods agreed she may depart and it could pay a amount of cash in change for her shredding all proof and signing an NDA. Gemma says a member of Harrods’ HR workforce used to be provide because the shredding came about.The BBC has heard that ladies have been threatened and intimidated through Harrods’ then-director of safety, John Macnamara, to forestall them talking out.Fourteen of the ladies we spoke to not too long ago introduced civil claims towards Harrods for damages. The store’s present homeowners, who aren’t asking girls to signal NDAs, began settling those in July 2023.It took Sophia and Harrods 5 years to achieve an settlement. In her case, the shop expressed remorseful about however didn’t admit legal responsibility. Many extra girls are actually making an allowance for criminal motion towards Harrods.The barristers representing one of the vital girls we spoke to – Bruce Drummond and Dean Armstrong KC – argue the shop used to be answerable for an unsafe device of labor.“Any office has an obligation to verify the security of its workers. With out query, the corporate failed those women,” says Mr Drummond. “That’s why we step in. As a result of they simply did not anything to in truth save you this. They did the other. They enabled it.”Mr Armstrong provides: “We are saying there were obviously makes an attempt through the senior folks at Harrods to comb this underneath the carpet.”Many extra girls are actually making an allowance for criminal motion towards Harrods.Barrister Maria Mulla – who may be at the criminal workforce representing one of the vital girls – says shoppers are coming ahead now, as a result of prior to now they have got been “completely petrified” to talk out.“They wish to be a part of this motion of conserving folks in command of what has took place to them, and making an attempt to ensure this stuff do not occur once more one day for their very own youngsters and for his or her youngsters.”Harrods advised the BBC: “Since new knowledge got here to mild in 2023 about historical allegations of sexual abuse through Al Fayed, it’s been our precedence to settle claims within the fastest method conceivable. This procedure remains to be to be had for any present or former Harrods workers.“Whilst we can’t undo the previous, we’ve been made up our minds to do the proper factor as an organisation, pushed through the values we grasp lately, whilst making sure that such behaviour can by no means be repeated one day.”The Ritz resort in Paris stated it “strongly condemns all kinds of behaviour that don’t align with the values of the status quo”.When Fayed died, unconfirmed reviews estimated his price in far more than £1bn. However cash isn’t the inducement for the ladies to talk out, they are saying.“I’ve spent such a lot of years being quiet and silent, no longer talking up,” says Gemma, “and I’m hoping speaking about it now is helping. We will be able to all get started feeling higher and therapeutic from it.”
