Mohamed al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, is said to have raped and sexually assaulted a string of women who worked at the department store.
Five women said they were raped by the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, and a further 20 claimed he sexually assaulted them.
The women who worked at Harrods from the late 1980s to 2000s said assaults were carried out at the company’s offices, in Fayed’s London apartment, or on foreign trips often in Paris at the Ritz hotel.
It is claimed he would regularly tour the department store’s sales floors to identify young female assistants he found attractive before isolating and attacking them.
The BBC revealed the allegations in a documentary and podcast called Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods.
In the expose, the broadcaster claims that Harrods not only failed to intervene but also helped cover up allegations against Fayed.
Harrods’ current owners said they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations, stressing the company today is “very different”.
‘Spider web of corruption’
Bruce Drummond, a barrister from a legal team representing a number of the women, said: “The spider’s web of corruption and abuse in this company was unbelievable and very dark.”
Speaking to the BBC, one of his alleged victims, Sophia, who worked as his personal assistant from 1988 to 1991, said he tried to rape her more than once. She said: “He was vile.”
After he featured in two recent series of Netflix’s The Crown, she spoke of her anger at his portrayal as a pleasant and gregarious character.
Sophie, who didn’t give her second name, said: “That makes me angry, people shouldn’t remember him like that. It’s not how he was.”
Another alleged victim, Rachel, not her real name, who was 19 at the time, stayed in one of Al-Fayed’s apartments instead of taking a taxi home on his insistence after working late on Harrods business.
He then invited her to his personal apartment, where he asked her to sit on the bed, with his hand on her leg and a firm grip, she says.
She said: “I made it obvious that I didn’t want that to happen. I did not give consent. I just wanted it to be over.
“I remember feeling his body on me, the weight of him. Just hearing him make these noises. And just going somewhere else in my head.”
Rachel told the BBC: “He raped me. Afterwards, you blame yourself. You’re there to do a job and this is your boss standing there in front of you in a dressing gown. And so even when you’re trying to get out of the situation, I’m trying not to offend him.”
Gemma is another alleged victim who claims she was raped by Fayed while they worked at Harrods.
Gemma was personal assistant to Fayed from 2007 to 2009. She told of how she was subjected to an intimate medical check shortly after starting the job, which she now believes was to test for sexually transmitted diseases.
‘Hugely invasive’
Asked if she had to have an “invasive gynaecological examination” after starting the role, she told BBC’s Today Programme: “Yes. So that was one of the selling points, was that, oh, you get these medical checks, and it’s really good.
“You know, they sold it to me that they do mole mapping, and they’ll check you, screen you for breast cancer and all of that kind of thing.
“So I just went along with the flow. It was all part of joining. They said you need to have it to be able to work in the chairman’s office.
“The gynaecological tests kind of sold to me that it was like a smear test. And I’d never had a smear test at that point, being 24, it wasn’t on my radar, and I didn’t really know what one involved.
“So when I got there they did the smear test and went on to do other tests, one of which was checking my ovaries, which I’d never heard of before.
“And to this day, I’ve never had one, never been asked to have one, and that was hugely invasive. That involved her inserting her hand and checking, to this day, I don’t know why.
“It was definitely looking for [STIs], because I’ve still got the doctor’s reports, and they did list like, you know, clear for chlamydia or all of those kinds of things.
“The relevance to doing an admin job versus having your ovaries checked doesn’t make sense. But at the time, I was told that was what was required, and if I wanted the job, I had to do it.”
Rape allegation investigated by police in 2015
Fayed had been accused of groping and sexually assaulting female employees across his lifetime, including a rape allegation which was investigated by police in 2015 but did not lead to any charges.
Born in Egypt, Mr Fayed was a businessman in the Middle East before moving to the UK in the 1970s.
He took control of Harrods in 1985 and purchased the Ritz hotel in Paris in 1979. He was also the owner of Fulham FC between 1997 and 2013,
His son Dodi died in a car crash in Paris alongside Diana, Princess of Wales. In the decade after the incident, he repeatedly claimed that Dodi had been murdered in a plot by the British establishment.
But he was forced to reluctantly concede defeat after a six-month inquest in 2007 and 2008. The jury returned unlawful killing verdicts on both the Princess and Dodi but pinned the blame on the drink-driving of chauffeur Henri Paul, who also died in the crash.
After 26 years in charge, in 2010, Mr Fayed sold Harrods to the Qatari royal family for a reported £1.5 billion. At the time, he said problems with pension fund trustees were behind his decision to sell the store.
Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods is on BBC Two at 9pm on Thursday and is available on BBC iPlayer now. All five episodes of World of Secrets: Al-Fayed, Predator at Harrods are available on BBC Sounds.
