Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi Al Fayed and boss of Harrods, accused of rape by several women

JUSTICE – Five former employees of the London department store Harrods accuse their former boss, Mohamed Al-Fayed, the Egyptian businessman who died a year ago, of rape, and several others denounce sexual assaults, in a BBC investigation to be broadcast this Thursday, September 19.

For this documentary entitled “Al-Fayed: a predator at Harrods”broadcast on BBC Two, the testimonies of around twenty women were collected, who also accuse the former owner of the luxury store of attempted rape and physical violence between the end of the 1980s and the 2000s.

According to the BBC, he had already been accused of similar acts and the police had opened an investigation in 2015 for rape. But the businessman, father of Princess Diana’s last lover, Dodi, who died with her in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997, has never been charged.

Harrods’ inaction singled out

The BBC also accuses Harrods of failing to intervene and also trying to cover up the sexual assault allegations. The current management of the famous store has “firmly” condemned the behavior of its former owner, who died at the age of 94, and apologized for having “let down (the) employees who were his victims”.

In total, five women accuse him of rape, committed in London or Paris, and five others of attempted rape.

Thirteen women claim that Al-Fayed sexually assaulted them at his flat at 60 Park Lane in London, where he often invited his female staff to work in the evenings. Nine women also accuse Al-Fayed of sexually assaulting them at his Parisian villa in Windsor.

“Everyone knew about it”

One of the victims, nicknamed Rachel, was 19 and said she stayed overnight at one of the Harrods boss’s flats after he insisted she work late. He then invited her into his flat and made her sit on his bed before grabbing her.

“I made it clear that I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t give my consent (…) he raped me”she tells the BBC.

According to Tony Leeming, an executive at the luxury store between 1994 and 2004, “everyone knew” and the “touching” committed by the owner had even become a subject of jokes.

Mohamed Al-Fayed, born on January 27, 1929 in a modest suburb of Alexandria, spent a large part of his life in Great Britain, where he became the owner of Harrods in 1985 and of the Fulham FC football club between 1997 and 2013.

To his frustration, the businessman was denied British citizenship several times. In 2000, the courts raised the issue “a general character problem”.

Also see on The HuffPost: