Mohamed al Fayed: Former royal security chief says he warned royal family before Diana went on holiday with businessman

The former head of the royal protection says he warned the royal family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday.

The former owner of Harrods, who died last year at the age of 94was announced earlier this week by lawyers representing 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse.

The women allege he raped and sexually abused them while they worked at the luxury department store, roaming the store floor and singling out women to take to his executive suite.

Dai Davies says people have known about the Egyptian businessman’s reputation since the 1990s and he raised his concerns about him with the royal family.

“This was a man I would be worried about if any member of my family went on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.

In July 1997, a month before her death, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in Saint-Tropez.

She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described in his 2023 memoir Spare as “heaven”.

“I was shocked because I was already aware of some of the allegations that were circulating,” Davies said.

“I knew he had done everything he could to curry favour with the Royal Family and knowing, as I did, the reputation he would have at the time, I was concerned. That’s why I took the opportunity to tell the Royal Family.”

Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”

“The rest is history,” he said.

Buckingham Palace told Sky News it would not comment on the allegations.

Fulham ‘deeply shocked’ by allegations

Fulham FC, a football club owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has said it is “deeply disturbing” due to dozens of “disturbing” allegations of sexual abuse against the businessman.

The Premier League club also said they are “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club has been or is being affected” by the alleged behaviour.

However, Gaute Haugenes, who coached the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC that extra precautions had been taken to protect the female players from Fayed.

“We knew he liked young, blonde girls. So we made sure that no situations could arise. We protected the players.”

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‘The door was locked behind me’

A former Harrods employee told Sky News she was called to Fayed’s apartment when she started working at the department store at the age of 19.

She was told it was an “appraisal meeting,” after which “the door was locked behind me.”

“I saw that his bedroom door was half open. There were sex toys in plain sight,” she said.

“I felt petrified. I sat all the way on the edge of the couch and then… my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself into me.”

Read more: ‘One of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation’

Harrods said in a statement on Thursday that it was “deeply shocked” by the allegations of abuse and apologized to Fayed’s alleged victims.

The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward with any allegations they may have.

The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods over alleged failure to provide a safe working environment for its employees said it wanted justice for victims of a “massive web of abuse”.