Mohamed Al Fayed compared to Jimmy Savile | UK | News

Mohamed Al Fayed was “simply a monster”, according to a lawyer representing women who claim they were raped and sexually abused in various ways by the former Harrods owner.

The case against Mr Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, is “appalling”, Dean Armstrong KC told a press conference today.

He said: “I have many years of experience, but I have never seen such a horrible thing.

“This case combines some of the most appalling elements of the Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein cases.

“Savile because in this case, as in that case, the institution, we say, was aware of the conduct.

“Epstein, because in that case, as in this case, there was a system of recruitment and selection to find the women and girls. As you know, these are very young victims.

“And Weinstein, because it was a person at the top of the organization who abused his power.

“We will say outright that Mohammed Al Fayed was a monster.”

Mr Armstrong KC said it was time for Harrods to “take responsibility” and “put things right”.

He continued: “We are here to say publicly and to the world, or to Harrods in front of the world, that it is time for them to take responsibility and to put things right. That is something they need to do as soon as possible.

“They must face responsibility and acknowledge that they are fully culpable for the abuse these women have suffered.

“Today we are going to lay out our claim and show that our claim demonstrates a scandalous lack of corporate social responsibility and a failure to ensure a safe system of work.”

Fellow attorney Bruce Drummond said at the press conference that it was “one of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation” that he and “perhaps the world has ever seen.”

He said: “This is one of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation that I, and perhaps the world, have ever seen.

“It was absolutely horrific, I can’t stress that word enough.”

He added that “the system under which they were acquired enabled the abuse”.

According to Mr Drummond, some of Mr Al Fayed’s accusers have ended up in “psychiatric care”.

He added: “This should never have happened and Harrods must accept responsibility for the harm these women have suffered.”

Several of Mr Al Fayed’s accusers also spoke at the press conference.

One of them, who went by the name Natacha and waived her right to anonymity, said: “Mohamed was clever and very manipulative. He acted like a father figure, often saying ‘call me daddy’, and often talking about his family and children, as if he wanted me to feel safe with him.”

She continued: “Unbeknownst to me, I had walked into a lion’s den, a layer of cover-ups, deceit, lies, manipulation, humiliation and gross sexual misconduct. The chairman preyed on the most vulnerable, those of us who had to pay the rent and some of us who had no parents to protect us.”

Natacha said she was once called to Mohamed Al Fayed’s apartment at night, ‘under the pretext of a job interview’.

She said: “The door was locked behind me… I saw his bedroom door half open – there were sex toys in plain sight.

“I felt petrified. I sat right on the edge of the couch and then… Mohamed Al Fayed, my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself against me.”

Natacha said that when Mr Al Fayed was on top of her, she managed to “kick free and free myself”.

She continued: “I ran to the door. I told him I was meeting my dad for dinner and that he would be worried that I would be late.

“He laughed at me – he calmed down and told me, in no uncertain terms, that I must never speak to anyone about this – if I did I would never work in London again and he knew where my family lived. I felt scared and sick.”

A statement from Harrods following a BBC Panorama documentary yesterday said: “We are utterly shocked by the allegations of abuse by Mohamed Al Fayed. These were the actions of an individual who intended to abuse his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms.

“We also recognize that as a company we have failed our employees who were victims of this act during this time and for that we offer our sincere apologies.

“The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one Al Fayed owned and led between 1985 and 2010. It is an organisation that puts the wellbeing of its employees at the heart of everything we do.

“That’s why, since new information came to light in 2023 about historical allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, our priority has been to settle claims as quickly as possible, to avoid lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved. This process is still available to all current or former Harrods employees – visit https://response.harrods.com to find out more.

“While we cannot undo the past, we are committed to doing the right thing as an organization. We will be guided by the values ​​we hold today and ensure that such behavior does not happen again in the future.”

Express.co.uk has contacted Harrods to ask if there are any additional comments following today’s revelations.