More than two hundred women who accused former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual violence have begun negotiations to reach an amicable settlement with the London department store, Harrods said Thursday, October 10, in a statement sent to the Agence France-Presse (AFP). The first revelations took place on September 19 during the BBC’s broadcast of the documentary. Al-Fayed: a predator at Harrods.
Some of the women are represented by the Justice for Harrods Survivors legal team, who last week reported having seventy-one clients from around the world in their action. Even before these revelations, Harrods had “ruler” from 2023 “a certain number of disputes with women alleging past acts of reprehensible sexual behavior” by Mohammed Al-Fayed. The latter died in August 2023, at the age of 94, which effectively extinguishes any criminal action against him.
Dozens of women, some of them minors at the time of the events, accuse him of rape and sexual assault. At least five claim to have been raped by the father of Princess Diana’s last companion, Dodi, who died with her in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997.
“Sex toy”
The BBC, which had collected the testimony of around twenty women for its documentary, announced on Thursday that another sixty-five women had contacted it accusing the billionaire of rape, harassment or sexual assault. Of these, thirty-seven worked at Harrods at the time. Some report events dating back to 1977.
One of them, who was 19 years old at the time of the events she reports, in 1985, had been hired as a governess for the Al-Fayed mansion in Oxted, in the southeast of England, before realizing that she was there only to serve. like a “sex toy” to the billionaire. She accuses him of rape and kidnapping.
Justice for Harrods Survivors lawyers have spoken in recent weeks of “credible evidence of sexual assaults at other Al-Fayed properties and businesses, including the English club Fulham Football Club”which he bought in 1997. They also said they represented women who worked at the Ritz in Paris, a luxury hotel owned by Mohammed Al-Fayed.
