It's everywhere mainstream news/media in the UK since the BBC aired a documentary yesterday
"‘A monster’: lawyers for Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged victims liken case to Savile
Barristers acting for 37 women announce intention to bring civil case against Harrods over late owner’s alleged abuse
Kevin Rawlinson
Fri 20 Sep 2024 11.29 BST
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The former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed was a “monster” whose sexual abuse of women could be compared with the cases of Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, lawyers representing dozens of survivors have said.
Speaking at a press conference in London on Friday, barristers acting for 37 of the women announced their intention to bring a civil case against Harrods, the luxury London department store, where they said a system was put in place to protect Fayed during his decades of abuse.
“We will say it plainly: Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster,” said Dean Armstrong KC, adding that he had “never seen a case as horrific as this”.
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Lawyers for Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged victims describe him as a 'monster' – video
He compared Fayed’s case to that of Savile because “in this case as in that, the institution, we say, knew about the behaviour”. He added: “Epstein because, in that case, as in this, there was a procurement system in place to source the women and girls – as you know there are some very young victims. And Weinstein, because it was a person at the very top of the organisation who was abusing his power.”
The announcement of the survivors’ planned civil case against Harrods comes after allegations of sexual assault against Fayed were aired in a BBC documentary on Thursday.
Fayed was accused of raping five women and sexually abusing at least 15 others when they worked for him at the luxury department store, according to that investigation. More than 20 women said they had been sexually assaulted by him, and that Harrods had covered up the abuse.
On Friday, Armstrong told reporters: “Our single aim is to seek justice for the survivors of the sexual abuses of Mohamed Al Fayed, who we say was enabled by an unsafe system of work, which Harrods established, maintained, certainly acquiesced to, and – we say – facilitated during this chairmanship. We believe the system not only enabled, but potentially allowed to a knowing extent the widespread sexual abuse of the survivors that we represent.”
The prominent US lawyer Gloria Allred called Harrods a “toxic, unsafe and abusive environment” under Fayed. She said the allegations included “serial rape, attempted rape, sexual battery, and sexual abuse of minors. They involved doctors administering invasive gynaecological exams as a condition of employment for some of the employees”.
Allred, who was introduced by her colleagues as the world’s leading women’s rights attorney, told reporters survivors had said they knew doctors had reported the results of those medical examinations to Fayed because he would use their details to put them down.
“The allegations involve coverups, threats and a quarter of a century of sexual abuse by Mohammed Al Fayed after he purchased Harrods and became its chairman,” Allred said. “Harrods is often referred to as the most beautiful store in the world... many women dreamed of working there, to be associated with this prestigious corporation and to further their careers. However, underneath the Harrods glitz and glamour, was a toxic, unsafe and abusive environment.”
So toxic, said Armstrong, that the survivors believed it amounted to an “abject failure of corporate responsibility”.
Maria Mulla, a barrister representing the same clients, said the Harrods offices were under video surveillance, and the phone lines were “bugged”. But this did not extend to Fayed’s own office.
She said the women – even including girls as young as 16 – were often followed, and that a member of Fayed security was tasked with finding out about their personal lives, listening in to their phone calls, and reporting back to him.
Bruce Drummond, another barrister representing the survivors, said the abuse was “absolutely horrific”, adding that the “effects have lasted years, and in some instances for decades, and even continue to this day … This has life-changing and lifelong effects on these dear ladies”.
Drummond added that some survivors had ended up in psychiatric care, and reporters were told some had struggled to form healthy intimate relationships with men in their later lives. “Some continue to suffer nightmares, depression and anxiety. So we’re here today to say to the world that this was not right,” Drummond said.
Fayed had previously been accused of sexually assaulting and groping multiple women, but a previous police investigation did not lead to any charges.
Harrods said: “We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed. These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise.
“The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.”
The legal team also represents women who were employed by the Paris Ritz and investigations were ongoing into “all entities that he had involvement in” – including Fulham Football Club. The club said it was “deeply troubled and concerned” about the case and were “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected”."
