Comment on the photo. Billionaire and former Harrods chief Mohammed Al FayedArticle Information
- author, Casey Cornish-Testrel, Keaton Stone, Erica Gornall and Sarah Bell
- Role, BBC News
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2 hours ago
**Warning: Some readers may find the details in this article disturbing.
Five women say they were raped by former boss Mohamed Al Fayed while working at luxury London department store Harrods.
The BBC heard testimony from more than 20 former female employees who said the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, sexually assaulted them, including by rape.
Evidence gathered by the BBC documentary and podcast Al Fayed: Lurking in Harrods suggests that rather than intervening to help the victims, Harrods helped cover up allegations of sexual assault during Al Fayed’s ownership.
The current owners of Harrods said they were “absolutely shocked” by the allegations and stressed that Fayed’s victims were let down and the store owners had apologised to the women affected.
“There’s an incredible spider web of corruption and abuse of power at this company that’s very murky,” said Bruce Drummond, an attorney who is part of the legal team representing several women.
The incidents took place in London, Paris, Saint-Tropez and Abu Dhabi.
One woman said Al Fayed raped her at his flat in Park Lane, London, adding: “I made it clear that I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t consent to it. I just wanted it to be over.”
Another woman said she was a teenager when Al Fayed raped her in Mayfair. “Mohamed Al Fayed is a monster, a sexual predator with absolutely no moral compass,” she said. “All of us who worked at Harrods were like playthings for Al-Fayed. He instilled fear in us. If he said jump, staff would ask how high?”
While Al Fayed faces allegations of sexual assault, the scale and severity of the allegations are now unprecedented and the BBC believes many other women may have also been attacked.
“He should be remembered as lovable and kind.”
Al Fayed’s entrepreneurial career began on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, where he sold soft drinks to passers-by, but his marriage to the sister of a Saudi arms dealer millionaire helped him forge new connections and build a business empire.
Mohamed Al-Fayed moved to the United Kingdom in 1974 and was already a well-known public figure when he took over Harrods in 1985. During the 1990s and 2000s, Al-Fayed frequently appeared as a guest on prime-time television talk shows and entertainment programmes.
Meanwhile, Al Fayed — whose son Dodi died in a car crash with Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 — has become known to a new generation through the latest two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown.
But the women we spoke to said the sweet, lovable image he portrayed couldn’t be further from the truth.
“He was malicious,” said Sofia, who worked as his personal assistant from 1988 to 1991. She also said he tried to rape her more than once.
“It makes me angry,” Sofia added, “That’s not how people should remember him. He wasn’t like that.”
Some of the women waived their right to anonymity in whole or in part during the filming, and the BBC agreed not to use their names. Others chose to remain anonymous. Overall, their testimonies reveal Al Fayed’s predatory and sexually aggressive behavior.
Former employees, both men and women, told us that the boss of Harrods would regularly patrol the store’s vast sales floor, pick out young female assistants he found attractive, and then promote them to work in his office upstairs.
The attacks took place at the offices of Harrods, at Al Fayed’s London apartment, or during trips abroad – usually in Paris, at the Ritz, which he also owned, or at the nearby Windsor House hotel.
Other former employees told us it was obvious what was happening at Harrods.
“We watched each other walk through that door and thought, ‘Poor girl, it’s your turn today,'” said Alice, who goes by a pseudonym. “We felt completely powerless to stop him.”
‘He raped me’
Rachel (not her real name) worked as a personal assistant at Harrods in the 1990s.
One evening, after get off work, Rachel was called to his luxurious apartment in a building in the Park Lane area, overlooking London’s Hyde Park.
Rachel said the building was protected by security guards and had an office staffed by Harrods employees.
Rachel added that Mohamed Fayed made her sit on his bed and then put his hands on her legs to explain to her what he wanted.
“I remember feeling his body on top of me and hearing him make these noises… I felt like my mind had gone somewhere else.”
The BBC spoke to 13 women who said Al-Fayed sexually assaulted them in the 60 Park Lane area. Four, including Rachel, said they were raped.
Sophia, who says she was sexually assaulted, describes the entire situation as an inescapable nightmare.
“I can’t leave, I have no home to go back to, I know I have to go through this but I don’t want to. It’s a blur,” Sofia said.
As for Gemma, who worked as one of Al Fayed’s personal assistants between 2007 and 2009, she said his behaviour was most horrific during his business trips abroad.
Gemma added that things came to a head when she was raped at Windsor Cottage in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne, the former home of King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson, who lived there after his abdication.
She said she was terrified when she woke up in her bedroom and Al Fayed was at her bedside, wearing only a silk dress and trying to climb into bed next to her.
“I told him no, I don’t want you to do that. Then he kept trying to get on the bed and that’s when he got on top of me and I couldn’t move anywhere. I kind of panicked. “Laying flat on the bed, he pressed himself on top of me.”
Gemma said she cried after Al Fayed raped her and he stood up and forced her to clean herself with Dettol.
She added: “It was clear that he wanted me to erase any trace of him being around me.”
Eight other women also told us they had been sexually assaulted at Al Fayed’s Paris property. Five of the women described the attacks as attempted rape.
‘An open secret’
“When I worked there, I realised that women were being mistreated,” said Tony Leeming, a department manager at Harrods from 1994 to 2004. “It was no secret,” Leeming recalled, saying he was unaware of the more serious assault or rape allegations, adding, “I thought if I knew, everyone knew. Anyone who says they didn’t know is sorry.”
Limin’s testimony was backed up by testimonies from former members of Mohamed Al Fayed’s security team.
“We knew he had a keen interest in young girls,” said Eamonn Coyle, who joined Harrods in 1979 as a store investigator and then became deputy security director between 1989 and 1995.
As for Steve, who did not want his last name used but worked for the billionaire between 1994 and 1995, he told us that security staff were “aware that something was going on with some of the female staff at Harrods and Park Lane”.
Many women told us that when they began working directly with Al Fayed, they underwent medical examinations—including sexual health checks—by doctors.
Women also told us that the tests were offered to them as a perk, but many of them never saw the results – despite being sent to Al Fayed.
“There’s no need for anyone to know my sexual health status unless you’re planning on having sex with someone, which I find scary now,” said Kathryn, who in 2005 worked as an administrative assistant.
‘Culture of fear’
All the women we spoke to said they felt intimidated while working at Harrods, which made it difficult for them to speak their minds.
“There was definitely a culture of fear throughout the store – from the most junior person to the most senior person,” explained Sarah, who uses a pseudonym.
Others told us they believed the phones at Harrods were bugged and that women were afraid to speak to each other about Al Fayed’s abuse for fear of being caught on hidden cameras.
Former deputy director of security Eamonn Coyle confirmed this, explaining that part of his job was to listen to recorded calls. He said cameras that could record were installed throughout the store, including in the executive suite.
“Al Fayed bugged anyone who wanted to bug him,” said Eamonn Cowell.
In a statement to the BBC, Harrods said these actions were the result of someone “intended to abuse their power” and we condemn them in the strongest terms.
“The Harrods of today is a completely different business to the Harrods that Al-Fayed owned and controlled between 1985 and 2010. We are an organisation committed to the wellbeing of our people as the foundation of everything we do,” the statement said.
Comment on the photo. In 2023, the new owners of Harrods began to reach a settlement with Fayed’s victims
There were multiple attempts to expose Al Fayed’s behavior before his death, most notably a 1995 Vanity Fair article that accused him of racism, employee surveillance and sexual misconduct. This prompted Al Fayed to file a defamation lawsuit.
Mohamed Al Fayed later agreed to drop the case as long as all other evidence the magazine had gathered about his sexual misconduct was preserved in preparation for trial. The settlement was negotiated by a senior Harrods executive.
In 1997, more serious allegations were made on ITV’s “Big Story” program, including sexual harassment and harassment – classified as sexual assault.
Ellie, the pseudonym of a woman who took part in the BBC investigation, was just 15 when she reported the alleged offence to police in 2008, an allegation that made headlines but for which no charges were ever brought.
In 2017, Channel 4 News broadcast allegations of sexual harassment and assault, in which one woman revealed her identity for the first time, which emboldened a number of women to come forward, leading to an investigation by the channel in 2018.
Only now, following the death of Mohammed al-Fayed last year, do many women feel they have the right to speak publicly about rape and attempted rape.
Money and Confidentiality Agreements
The BBC documentary revealed that as part of the settlement Gemma received in 2009, she had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, a legally binding contract that ensures information remains confidential.
She said she contacted a lawyer after she was raped who told Harold she was resigning over the sexual harassment, with Gemma adding that at the time she could not reveal the severity of Fayed’s attack on her.
Harrods agreed to let Gemma quit her job and paid her in exchange for destroying all evidence and signing a confidentiality agreement. Gemma said a member of Harrods’ human resources team was present during the destruction process.
The BBC has learned that the women were threatened and intimidated by Harrods’ then head of security, John McNamara, in a bid to stop them speaking out.
Fourteen women we recently spoke to have filed a civil claim against Harrods seeking damages. In July 2023, the store’s current owners began settling the lawsuit without requiring the women to sign nondisclosure agreements.
It took five years for Sophia to reach a settlement, with the store expressing regret in her case but not admitting liability, and several women are currently considering taking legal action against Harrods.
Two lawyers representing some of the women we spoke to – Bruce Drummond and Dean Armstrong KC – believe the store should be held accountable for unsafe working conditions.
“It is the responsibility of any workplace to ensure the safety of its employees,” Drummond said. “There is no doubt that the company failed these women because they did nothing to prevent this. They allowed this to happen.”
“We are saying there was a clear attempt by senior officials at Harrods to cover up this case,” Armstrong said.
Many women are now considering taking legal action against Harrods.
Maria Molla, a lawyer who is part of the legal team representing some of the women, said clients who previously did nothing and were afraid to speak out are now filing lawsuits.
Maria Mora added: “They want to be part of this movement to hold people accountable for what happened to them and to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future, for the sake of their children.”
Harrods told the BBC: “Since new information emerged in 2023 about allegations of historical sexual assault against Al Fayed, our priority has been to resolve these allegations as quickly as possible and this process remains open to any current or former Harrods employee.”
The store continued: “While we cannot erase what happened in the past, we are determined as an organization, driven by the values we uphold today, to do the right thing while ensuring this behavior does not happen again in the future.”
The Ritz Paris said it “strongly condemns all forms of behavior that are inconsistent with the values of the institution.”
At the time of his death, unconfirmed reports estimated Mohammed al-Fayed’s wealth at more than £1billion. The women said money was not their motivation for speaking out.
“I have been silent for so many years and I am hoping that speaking out now will help us all,” Gemma said. “We can all start to feel better and heal from this.”
