In a BBC investigation broadcast on Thursday, former employees of the London department store Harrods accuse their former boss, who died in 2023, of sexual violence. The victims will take legal action against the brand, their lawyers announced on Friday, September 20.
A year after his death, Mohamed Al-Fayed is accused of sexual violence by at least 37 women, their lawyers announced on Friday, who will file a civil action against the famous London department store Harrods, of which Al Fayed was the boss. “The time for justice has come”declared American lawyer Gloria Allred, who is part of the group of counsel in charge of this case, at a press conference in London.
Among these women, five of them formerly worked at Harrods accuse the Egyptian businessman of rape, while several others denounce sexual assault. Their testimonies were collected in a BBC investigation which was broadcast this Thursday, September 19.
In this documentary entitled “Al-Fayed: a predator at Harrods”broadcast on BBC Two, the British channel also reports the testimonies of 20 women, who accuse the former owner of the luxury store of attempted rape and physical violence, between the late 1980s and the late 2000s. According to the BBC, he had already been accused of similar acts and the police had opened an investigation in 2015 for rape. But the businessman, father of Princess Diana’s last lover, Dodi, who died with her in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997, has never been charged.
According to testimonies from former employees collected by the BBC, the Harrods owner regularly wandered the department store, identifying young assistants he found attractive, who were then promoted to work in his offices upstairs. “The attacks took place in the Harrods offices, at Fayed’s London flat or during trips abroad – often to Paris, at the Ritz Hotel, which he also owned, or at his neighbouring property, the Villa Windsor.”explains the BBC.
In total, five women have accused him of rape, committed in London or Paris, and five others of attempted rape. Thirteen women claim that Al-Fayed sexually assaulted them at his flat at 60 Park Lane in London, where he often invited his female staff to work in the evenings. Nine women also accuse Al-Fayed of sexually assaulting them at his Parisian villa in Windsor.
One of the victims, nicknamed Rachel, was 19 and said she stayed overnight at one of the Harrods boss’s flats after he insisted she work late. He then invited her into his flat and made her sit on his bed before grabbing her. “I made it clear that I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t give my consent (…) he raped me”she tells the BBC.
Harrods accused of covering up
According to Tony Leeming, an executive at the luxury store between 1994 and 2004, “everyone knew” and the “touching” The thieves’ actions by the owner had even become the subject of jokes. Several people say that the phones at Harrods were tapped and that the women “were afraid to talk to each other about Fayed’s abuse, fearing they would be caught on hidden cameras”. This was confirmed by former deputy director of security, Eamon Coyle, whose job included listening to tapes of recorded calls.
The BBC also accuses Harrods of failing to intervene and also trying to cover up the sexual assault allegations. The current management of the famous store has “firmly” condemned the behavior of its former owner, who died at the age of 94, and apologized for having “let down (the) employees who were his victims”.
Mohamed Al-Fayed, born on January 27, 1929 in a modest suburb of Alexandria, spent much of his life in Great Britain, where he became the owner of Harrods in 1985 and the Fulham FC football club between 1997 and 2013. To his great frustration, the businessman was denied British citizenship several times. In 2000, the courts had raised “a general character problem”.
Updated: at 12:25 with the announcement by the lawyers this Friday of the legal action.
Source: www.liberation.fr
