Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed (who was tragically killed in a car crash alongside Princess Diana), has been accused of rape by multiple women who worked in the department store, Harrods.
Al-Fayed bought Harrods in the 1980s. It was widely known that the wealthy Egyptian held a fascination with British culture and the royal family in particular, a story depicted by the popular series The Crown. Al-Fayed died in August 2023 at the age of 94.
Now, a new BBC documentary and podcast, Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods, shares that multiple women have testified on the record to a journalist that they were sexually assaulted by Al-Fayed, with five accusing him of rape.
Throughout the course of his lifetime, Al-Fayed was the subject of many other allegations, including an attempted exposé by Vanity Fair in 1995 (which sparked as a libel case) and in 2008, a 15-year-old girl reported an assault to police – but Al-Fayed was never charged.
It’s said that Al-Fayed would roam the shop floor, picking out women he liked the look of and promoting them to the upstairs offices. Some of the assaults are said to have taken place in said offices, as well as in Al-Fayed’s home or while overseas, including in the Ritz Hotel in Paris (which he also owned).
An ex-staff member said, “We all watched each other walk through that door thinking, ‘you poor girl, it’s you today’ and feeling utterly powerless to stop it.”
One woman who worked in Harrods and who claims she was raped by Al-Fayed as a teenager said, “Mohamed Al-Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass whatsoever. We were all so scared. He actively cultivated fear. If he said ‘jump’ employees would ask ‘how high?’.”
Another woman, who previously worked as Al-Fayed’s personal assistant, describes him as “vile” and accuses the businessman of trying to rape her on more than one occasion.
Harrods is no longer owned by the Fayed family. The new owners, members of Qatar’s royal family reportedly paid £1.5 billion for the store in 2010. In response the allegations, the current owners of Harrods have said they are “utterly appalled”.
In a statement they said: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.”
Other women have spoken out to air concerns that the phones in Harrods were tapped and that they were being secretly recorded, something that a former member of of Al-Fayed’s security team has confirmed.
Some women, according to the BBC report, are looking into taking legal action against Harrods. The barristers representing some of them have said: “Any place of work has a duty to ensure the safety of its employees. Without question, the company failed these ladies. They just did nothing to actually prevent this. They did the opposite. They enabled it.
The department store has already some claims against it by former workers in relation to Al-Fayed’s alleged misconduct and violence.
MDW Live! News Network 
Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed (who was tragically killed in a car crash alongside Princess Diana), has been accused of rape by multiple women who worked in the department store, Harrods.
Al-Fayed bought Harrods in the 1980s. It was widely known that the wealthy Egyptian held a fascination with British culture and the royal family in particular, a story depicted by the popular series The Crown. Al-Fayed died in August 2023 at the age of 94.
Now, a new BBC documentary and podcast, Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods, shares that multiple women have testified on the record to a journalist that they were sexually assaulted by Al-Fayed, with five accusing him of rape.
Throughout the course of his lifetime, Al-Fayed was the subject of many other allegations, including an attempted exposé by Vanity Fair in 1995 (which sparked as a libel case) and in 2008, a 15-year-old girl reported an assault to police – but Al-Fayed was never charged.
It’s said that Al-Fayed would roam the shop floor, picking out women he liked the look of and promoting them to the upstairs offices. Some of the assaults are said to have taken place in said offices, as well as in Al-Fayed’s home or while overseas, including in the Ritz Hotel in Paris (which he also owned).
An ex-staff member said, “We all watched each other walk through that door thinking, ‘you poor girl, it’s you today’ and feeling utterly powerless to stop it.”
One woman who worked in Harrods and who claims she was raped by Al-Fayed as a teenager said, “Mohamed Al-Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass whatsoever. We were all so scared. He actively cultivated fear. If he said ‘jump’ employees would ask ‘how high?’.”
Another woman, who previously worked as Al-Fayed’s personal assistant, describes him as “vile” and accuses the businessman of trying to rape her on more than one occasion.
Harrods is no longer owned by the Fayed family. The new owners, members of Qatar’s royal family reportedly paid £1.5 billion for the store in 2010. In response the allegations, the current owners of Harrods have said they are “utterly appalled”.
In a statement they said: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.”
Other women have spoken out to air concerns that the phones in Harrods were tapped and that they were being secretly recorded, something that a former member of of Al-Fayed’s security team has confirmed.
Some women, according to the BBC report, are looking into taking legal action against Harrods. The barristers representing some of them have said: “Any place of work has a duty to ensure the safety of its employees. Without question, the company failed these ladies. They just did nothing to actually prevent this. They did the opposite. They enabled it.
The department store has already some claims against it by former workers in relation to Al-Fayed’s alleged misconduct and violence.
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