The high-end London department store, Harrods, said Thursday that it is “utterly appalled” by allegations of abuse – including rape – perpetrated by its former owner, the late billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed.
More than 20 female ex-Harrods employees have accused Al Fayed, who died last year at age 94, of sexually assaulting them, according to an in-depth BBC investigation. One said she was assaulted when she was 15 and Al Fayed was 79. Harrods acknowledged that Al Fayed was “intent on abusing his power wherever he operated.”
The alleged assaults are said to have taken place at a wide range of locations, including Al Fayed’s luxury apartment building in London, the Ritz hotel in Paris, which Al Fayed owned, and a Parisian villa that Al Fayed rented called Villa Windsor, known for being the main residence of the Duke of Windsor, a former British king, and his wife, for decades.
Al Fayed’s son, Dodi Fayed, died in 1997 along with Princess Diana in a high-speed car crash in Paris.
Numerous women interviewed in the BBC investigation described instances of being invited to an apartment block owned by Al Fayed after finishing late shifts at Harrods. They said they would be invited there under the pretense of safety, being allocated their own apartment to stay in to avoid traveling home late at night. Once there, the women said they would be called up to Al Fayed’s own apartment, where he would greet them in a silk robe and force himself onto them.
Thirteen women said they were sexually assaulted at Al Fayed’s apartment block, including four who said they were raped there.
One woman, Sophia, said she was working in the Harrods women’s clothing department when Al Fayed approached her and offered her a job in his office. A few days after she started the new job, Sophia said that Al Fayed began to “bear hug” her, then tried to kiss her.
In a separate incident, Al Fayed invited her over to his London apartment, where she said he pushed her onto the sofa and then forced himself on top of her.
“I’m strong and I starting kicking him, and I kicked him off really hard,” said Sophia, who the BBC documentary identified by her first name only. “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 ground me down every single day.”
Many of the women who were allegedly assaulted by Al Fayed also said they worked on the Harrods shop floor before being approached by the chairman.
“We all stood and watched each other walk through that door thinking ‘you poor girl, it’s you today’ and feeling utterly powerless to stop it,” one woman using the pseudonym Alice said. She said she was 16 years old when she was assaulted by Al Fayed.
Another woman told the BBC that she was assaulted by Al Fayed in the boardroom of Harrods in May 2008, when she was 15 years old. She reported it to police, but charges were not 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 manager saying that it “wasn’t even a secret.”
“I knew and I think, if I knew, everybody knew. Anyone who says they didn’t they’re lying,” the former department manager Tony Leeming said.
“It was a joke and it was laughed about,” Leeming said. “It was like ‘Oh you know, this person’s going to be a manager in five minutes because she’s gone up to Al Fayed’s office. Ha ha ha.’”
“Looking back on it now it’s pretty repellent, he continued.
Harrods apologized to victims in a statement, adding that “the Harrods of today is a very different organization to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010.”
“We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed,” the company said. “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 apologize.”
Harrods said that last year “new information came to light” about historic allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by Al Fayed. Since then, it said, “it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved. This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.”