Harrods “deeply appalled” by allegations that former owner Mohamed Al Fayed raped staff

London
CNN
—

London luxury department store Harrods on Thursday expressed its “deep shock” at allegations of abuse – including rape – against its former owner, the late billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed.

More than 20 former Harrods employees have accused Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, of sexually harassing them, according to an in-depth BBC investigation. One of them said she was harassed when she was 15, while Al Fayed was 79. Harrods admitted that Al Fayed “wanted to abuse his power wherever he worked”.

The alleged assaults are said to have taken place in a variety of locations, including Al Fayed's luxury London apartment building, the Ritz hotel in Paris, which Al Fayed owned, and a Paris villa rented by Al Fayed called Villa Windsor, which was the primary residence of the Duke of Windsor, a former British king, and his wife for decades.

Al Fayed's son, Dodi Fayed, died along with Princess Diana in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997.

Numerous women interviewed for the BBC investigation described instances in which they were invited to a residential building owned by Al Fayed after a late shift at Harrods. They said they were invited there under the pretext of security and given a separate apartment to stay in so they wouldn't have to drive home late at night. Once there, the women said, they were called to Al Fayed's own apartment, where he greeted them in a silk robe and forced himself on them.

Thirteen women reported being sexually assaulted in Al Fayed's apartment block, four of whom reported being raped there.

One woman, Sophia, said she was working in the women's clothing department at Harrods when Al Fayed approached her and offered her a job in his office. A few days after she started the new job, Sophia said, Al Fayed began to “hug her like a bear” and then tried to kiss her.

In another incident, Al Fayed invited her to his London apartment, where she said he pushed her onto the sofa and then forcibly lay on top of her.

“I'm strong and I started kicking him, really hard,” said Sophia, who is only referred to by her first name in the BBC documentary. “I thought, 'he's going to rape me.'”

“It was a horrible, horrible nightmare,” she continued. “It was really hard to get out of it. I can't explain how it wore me down every day.”

Many of the women who were allegedly attacked by Al Fayed also said they had been working in the Harrods sales hall before being approached by the CEO.

“We all stood there watching each other as we walked through the door and thought, 'You poor girl, it's your turn today' and felt completely powerless to stop it,” said a woman who used the pseudonym Alice. She said she was 16 years old when she was attacked by Al Fayed.

Another woman told the BBC that she was attacked by Al Fayed in the boardroom at Harrods in May 2008. She was 15 at the time. She reported it to the police, but no charges were brought against Al Fayed. He denied the allegations at the time.

Former Harrods employees told the BBC that Al Fayed's treatment of women was known throughout the department store, with one former department head even saying it was “not even a secret”.

“I knew it and I think if I knew it, everyone knew it. Anyone who says they didn't know is lying,” said former department head Tony Leeming.

“It was a joke and people laughed about it,” Leeming said. “It was like, 'Oh, you know, this person is going to be manager in five minutes because they went into Al Fayed's office. Ha ha ha.'”

“Looking back now, it’s pretty disgusting,” he continued.

Harrods apologized to the victims in a statement, adding: “The Harrods of today is a very different organization to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010.”

“We are deeply appalled by the allegations of abuse of power made by Mohamed Al Fayed,” the company said. “These were the actions of an individual intent on abusing his power wherever he operated, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms. We also recognize that as a company we failed our employees, who were his victims, during this time, and for that we sincerely apologize.”

Harrods said last year “new information came to light” about previous allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed. Since then, it said, “our priority has been to resolve the allegations as quickly as possible and to spare the women involved from lengthy legal proceedings. This process remains available to all current and former Harrods employees.”