Dozens of women accuse Mohammed Al-Fayed of being a sexual predator

Mohammed Al-Fayed, the wealthy owner of London’s Ritz and Harrods stores, was a sexual predator, according to explosive allegations made by five women to the BBC in a series of documentaries airing on Thursday, September 19. The women allege they were repeatedly assaulted and raped, with some of the incidents occurring when they were minors. Al-Fayed, who had friends in high positions and socialized with celebrities, was the father of Dodi Al-Fayed, Diana’s last lover, who died with her in a car crash under the Pont de l’Alma in Paris in 1997.

Since then, there have been numerous revelations about the conduct of the Egyptian businessman, who died in 2023 at the age of 94. More and more women, all of whom worked for Harrods between the 1980s and early 2000s, have contacted the BBC to testify about sexual abuse.

On Saturday, September 21, Bruce Drummond, a barrister at New Bailey Chambers and part of the team representing 37 of Al-Fayed’s alleged victims, told BBC Radio 4 that 150 new individual investigations had been opened since the British public broadcaster’s scoop. “This is the worst case of corporate sexual exploitation of young women that (…) the world has probably ever seen,” said the lawyer, who compared the businessman to American producer Harvey Weinstein at a press conference the day before in front of victims.

According to witnesses, these events took place in various locations, including the billionaire’s London apartment, during his trips to Dubai, at the Ritz in Paris or the Windsor villa on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne. This former residence of the short-lived King Edward VIII (who abdicated after a reign of 11 months) was purchased by Al-Fayed in the mid-1980s.

The ‘most vulnerable’ prey

“I didn’t give consent. I just wanted it to be over,” explained one of the five women in the BBC documentary who accused Al-Fayed of raping her at his Park Lane apartment. Most of the alleged victims testified under aliases or preferred to remain anonymous. Another, Gemma, also worked as the businessman’s personal assistant between 2007 and 2009. She alleged she was raped at the Windsor villa. Natacha, who testified at a news conference with her lawyers on Friday, said she was tested for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases by Harrods management but never received the results.

These women spoke of how vulnerable they felt to threats from their billionaire boss, who ordered them not to say anything after his attacks. One of them, Sophia, told the BBC she had experienced a “nightmare”: “I “I couldn’t leave (Harrods). I had no (family) home to go back to, I had to pay rent.” Natacha, who was 19 when she worked for Al-Fayed, told how he targeted the “most vulnerable”. After raping her, he allegedly threatened her, telling her he knew where she and her family lived and that if she talked about it she would “never work in London again”.

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