‘Serial rapist’ Mohamed Al Fayed ‘combined WORST of Savile, Epstein & Weinstein’ with ‘100 victims’ and ‘cover-up’ at Harrods

According to a lawyer, the alleged abuse of women by MOHAMED Al Fayed is “a combination of the worst of Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein”.

The Egyptian billionaire, who died last year, is accused of raping and sexually assaulting more than 20 female employees.

Al Fayed is accused of raping and sexually assaulting female employeesCredit: Pixel8000

Dean Armstrong KC speaks at a press conference todayCredit: PA

Five women say they were raped by former Harrods bossCredit: Alamy

Savile used his position at the BBC and his charity work to sexually abuse victimsSource: Getty

Jeffrey Epstein was facing sex crime charges when he died in prisonSource: AP

Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison in February 2020Source: Reuters

However, there are fears the total number of victims could exceed 100 as Dean Armstrong KC, who represents the alleged victims, today encouraged other potential victims to come forward.

At a press conference, the lawyer described the former Harrods chairman as a “monster”.

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

“Savile because in this case the institution that we say was aware of the behavior.

“Epstein, because in that case, as in this case, there was a system of recruitment and selection to recruit women and girls – these are very young victims – for abuse.

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

“We will say it straight out: Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster.”

The women, who worked at Harrods from the late 1980s to the 2000s, allege the attacks took place at the company’s offices, in Fayed’s London apartment and during foreign trips, often to Paris, at the Ritz hotel.

BBC research also revealed that he regularly visited the department store’s sales points to identify young female assistants.

Mr Drummond KC added: “This is one of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation that I, and perhaps the world, have ever seen.

Mohamed Al Fayed accused of raping five women, including a teenager, with one of them saying he ordered her to wash with Dettol after the attack

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

He also accused Harrods of having “knowledge” of the abuse as early as 1995.

The new documentary, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, claims the store not only failed to intervene but also helped cover up allegations against Al Fayed.

The lawyer continued: “He was a monster who was enabled by a system. A system that permeated Harrods.

“Those of you who saw the documentary last night will remember the manager’s words: ‘Anyone who says they didn’t know what was going on is lying.’

“As a first step, we welcome Harrods’ admission at the end of the programme that they had failed these women. However, they also claim that they were not made aware of Al Fayed’s behaviour until 2023.

“We’ll say it outright, that’s simply not true. The BBC documentary and all the other material makes that clear.

“This was systematic abuse long before then and Harrods knew about it for a long time.”

One of Al Fayed’s alleged victims, Gemma, who worked for him as a personal assistant between 2007 and 2009, said his behaviour became increasingly frightening during work trips abroad.

She alleges he raped her at Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, the former home of the abdicated King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson.

Gemma described waking up to find him trying to get into bed with her. She added: “I said to him, ‘No, I don’t want that.’

“And he kept trying to get into bed, but at one point he was on top of me and I literally couldn’t move.

Who was Mohamed Al Fayed?

MOHAMED AL FAYED was best known as the owner of the luxury department store Harrods and as the father of Princess Diana’s friend, Dodi Al-Fayed.

The billionaire died in August 2023 at the age of 94, nearly 26 years after the death of his son.

Heini Wathen married Mohamed Al-Fayed in 1985 and the couple had four children: Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar.

The romance between Heini and Mohamed started after they were introduced to each other by Mohamed’s son Dodi.

The couple is played by Hanna Alström and Salim Daw in the sixth and final season of The Crown on Netflix.

Before Mohamed married Heini, he had already been married once before.

In 1954 he married the Saudi Arabian writer Samira Khashoggi.

The couple separated after two years, but had son Dodi together in 1955.

Dodi is the only child of Samira and Mohamed, but Mohamed went on to have four more children with his second wife.

Before his death, Mohamed lived with his wife Heini in a house near Oxted.

The family estate in Surrey, called Barrow Green Court, is where both Mohamed and his son Dodi are buried.

His eldest son, Dodi, was murdered in 1997 along with Diana, Princess of Wales.

“I was lying face down on the bed and he was pressing against me.”

Another alleged victim, Sophia, who worked as his personal assistant from 1988 to 1991, said he tried to rape her more than once. She said: “He was mean.”

After starring in two recent series of Netflix’s The Crown, she expressed her anger at his portrayal as a pleasant and sociable character.

Sophia, who did not give her middle name, said: “That makes me angry, people shouldn’t remember him like that. That’s not who he was.”

Also speaking at today’s press conference, US attorney Gloria Allred described Harrods as a “toxic, unsafe and abusive environment” under Al Fayed’s chairmanship.

She said the allegations included serial rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse of minors.

Harrods said in a statement to the BBC: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and led by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010.

“It is a policy that places the well-being of our employees at the heart of everything we do.

“Since new information came to light in 2023 about historical allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, our priority has been to resolve the claims as quickly as possible.

“This process is still available to all current and former Harrods employees.

“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.”