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Three former Harrods employees have accused Mohamed Al Fayed’s only surviving brother of sexually assaulting them while they were working for the department store. Speaking publicly for the first time, the women say Ali Fayed, 82, assaulted them in the 1990s when he and his brothers, Mohamed and Salah, owned and ran Harrods.
A spokesperson for Mr Fayed, who lives in the US, said the businessman “will not be scapegoated” and he “unequivocally denies any and all the allegations of wrongdoing” and that “the incidents simply never took place”.
The alleged sexual assaults happened in London, Scotland, Switzerland and the United States. One of the women, a former interior designer for Harrods, says one assault happened on a work trip while she was staying with Ali Fayed and his family at their former home in Connecticut.
All three women say prior to Ali Fayed’s alleged assaults, they had also been sexually abused by his older brother. Police say 111 women have now made allegations against Mohamed Al Fayed, who added the Arabic “Al” prefix to his surname sometime in the 1970s.
One of the women, Amy, has told the BBC she wants “an explanation” from Ali Fayed, and an “understanding of what was going on that can help [her] step forward and begin healing”.
All three say they didn’t feel able to speak out at the time.
Ali Fayed denies all the allegations of wrongdoing – said his spokesperson – and “will not allow false accusations to go unchallenged”.
A third woman, who we are calling Laura, told us she recalls Mohamed Al Fayed summoning her to his office and telling her “with a smirk on his face” that his brother Ali wanted to see her.
Laura had been working directly for Mohamed Al Fayed in Harrods’ HR department and says his sexual harassment towards her had become commonplace, escalating to two serious sexual assaults.
The abuse at Harrods “took its toll” says Laura – even after she left the store. She bottled it all up for 25 years, she says, and still hasn’t told some of her loved ones what she went through.
All three women are pursuing civil legal action against Harrods through Justice for Harrods Survivors.
The BBC spoke to three other women who said they had been either raped, sexually assaulted or trafficked by the other Fayed brother, Salah, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2010.
The women who accuse Ali Fayed question what the three brothers knew about each other’s behaviour.
It is understood the Met Police has not recorded any allegations of sexual offending against Ali Fayed.
A Met spokesperson told the BBC that the police force urged “anyone with information, whether they were directly affected by Mohamed Al Fayed’s actions or aware of others who may have been involved, or committed offences to come forward.
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