A total of 90 women now accuse the late owner of London department store Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed, of sexual assault and rape, London police announced on Wednesday. She is investigating possible accomplices.
Several of these new complainants reported “multiple offenses”, added the police, without specifying which ones. No details on the profile of the victims were given.
Questioned by complainants in the management of its investigations, the London police also claim to be investigating “a certain number of individuals who were close” to the Egyptian businessman. According to British media, at least five people are in the crosshairs of investigators.
Saying they are “pursuing all reasonable lines of inquiry”, police say they have reviewed more than 50,000 pages of evidence, including numerous previous statements. Without apologizing, she acknowledges “missed opportunities”.
BBC Documentary
At the beginning of November, she announced that she had transmitted to the “police police” the complaints of two women concerning cases from 2008 and 2013. More or less at the same time, she also assured of examining the way in which 21 testimonies “filed before the death of Mohamed Al-Fayed” had been dealt with.
Testimonies against Mohamed Al-Fayed have multiplied since the broadcast in September of a BBC documentary reporting multiple accusations of rape and sexual assault allegedly committed by the Egyptian businessman, who died in August 2023 at the age of 94.
>> Reread: BBC investigation accuses Mohamed Al-Fayed of raping ex-Harrods employees
The oldest charges date back to 1979, according to London police. The attacks reportedly lasted more than 30 years, until 2013. Mohamed Al-Fayed was never the subject of legal proceedings during his lifetime, but he was arrested by the police in 2013.
In mid-November, three women who worked at Harrods accused the person’s brother, Salah Fayed, also deceased, of sexually assaulting them. The events allegedly took place in London, in the south of France and in Monaco between 1989 and 1997. They also claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Mohamed Al-Fayed.
The “Justice for Harrods Survivors” group says it has been contacted by more than 420 people, victims, but also witnesses, about similar incidents. They mainly concern the department store, but also the Fulham football club and the Ritz hotel in Paris, which also belonged to Mohamed Al-Fayed.
>> Reread: More than 400 victims of Mohamed Al-Fayed, the ex-owner of the Harrods store, have come forward
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