The Observer’s take on Mohamed Al Fayed: Despite #MeToo, women are still at the mercy of powerful predators | The Observer Editorial

MEry and power have historically allowed men to get away with the most horrific abuses and keep quiet. The spate of sexual abuse and rape allegations made by women in the past week against the late former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed (lawyers representing 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse spoke at a news conference on Friday) paint a picture of institutional intimidation and cover-ups that go far beyond the appalling behavior of which the billionaire has been accused.

It left women afraid to talk about what allegedly happened to them, not only while he was alive and could stand trial, but even after his death. It is only through a painstaking BBC investigation that these multiple stories have come to light. It is highly likely that there are more cases.

Bruce Drummond, one of the lawyers representing the women, described it as “one of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation” he has ever seen. Fayed is accused of raping and sexually assaulting women, mostly aged 19 to 24, but also girls as young as 15 or 16, at the Harrods store in London and at locations in Paris, including the Ritz hotel he owned. Former female employees have said he was known to prowl the shop floor, looking for women to call into his office. Some say they were subjected to invasive gynecological examinations as a condition of their employment.

Fayed allegedly provided security to a number of his female employees, following them and tapping their phone calls. Those who dared to complain were relentlessly threatened; one woman, who was 16 when Fayed allegedly sexually abused her, says that when one of Fayed’s senior security guards discovered she had spoken to a journalist about his behaviour, he called her to say he knew where her parents lived. Even a year after Fayed’s death, many of those affected were clearly terrified of talking to the BBC; according to the documentary’s producer, some of the women they approached feared that the journalists involved were secretly working for his staff; it took immense courage for them to come forward.

That the web of fear Fayed wove still exists, seven years after the #MeToo moment led to a wave of women from all walks of life coming forward with allegations of rape and sexual abuse, shows how powerful money and influence can be. As Henry Porter, the former British editor of Vanity Fair – who tried to sue Fayed in the 1990s for his journalistic investigations into him – writes in the Observer Today, there are said to be teams of people who were complicit in paving the way for Fayed to attack women and then cover it up. There were media reports of allegations of sexual abuse while he was alive, including an attack as recent as 2008. He was only seriously questioned by police once.

His death could mean he will not be able to stand trial himself, but female survivors of his abuse are considering bringing a civil claim against Harrods, which sold Fayed in 2010. Huge questions remain about who aided and abetted Fayed’s abuse, which was an open secret not just at the department store but likely at his other businesses. The former manager of Fulham’s women’s football team has said female players were “protected” from him after his predilection for younger women became apparent.

There is always a temptation, when terrible events from the past come to light, to view them as part of history: such things could never happen today. But if a billionaire were to attack female employees today, with all the resources at his disposal, could he get away with the abuse and the cover-up? That the answer to that question is “very likely” should make us all shudder.