Sir Keir Starmer has come under fire over the failure to charge Mohamed Fayed with sexual assault while he was chief prosecutor.
In 2008, Fayed, the then owner of Harrods, was interviewed by the Metropolitan Police under caution after a 15-year-old girl told detectives he had sexually assaulted her at the London department store.
In February 2009, when Sir Keir was director of public prosecutions (DPP), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that no charges would be brought because there was “no realistic prospect of conviction”.
Downing Street claims Sir Keir, who quit his role at the CPS in 2013, had no involvement in the decision. However, the Conservatives said it was “yet another instance of failure” of the organisation under his watch, after it also failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
Five women have now claimed they were raped by Fayed and a further 20 said he sexually assaulted them.
Matt Vickers, shadow minister for crime and policing, said: “Keir Starmer is always eager to take credit for other people’s work at the CPS, but whenever something went wrong under his watch it was always someone else’s fault.
“There was a chance to prosecute Fayed while Starmer was DPP but it was not taken. These latest revelations show this was yet another instance of failure.”
Sir Keir said when he was DPP that he was “personally concerned” when it came to any case that might have reputational impact for the CPS which “may be because it’s about a particularly sensitive case”.
He has in the past denied that he was informed when a CPS investigator decided to drop a case against Savile when he was DPP.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Keir did not handle this case. It did not cross his desk.”
Fayed died last year aged 94 without ever being prosecuted, despite multiple complaints to the police by different women.
By the time the teenager went to the police in 2008 to say that Fayed had groped and kissed her against her will, Fayed had a well-established reputation for sexually assaulting his staff.
In a 1998 biography by Tom Bower, former employees described being groped by Fayed in the workplace and being pestered for sex by him in his homes in London and Paris.
The teenager, who is now in her 30s, told the BBC she had started working at Harrods as a shop assistant in 2007 when she was 14 and saw him as a father figure at first, but he started calling her on her personal mobile and hugging her in the shop.
She said in May 2008, she was asked to go up to the Harrods boardroom, where she claims she was assaulted.
She said: “He started hugging me and getting touchy and feely, rubbing himself against me and he just grabbed my face and tried to put his tongue in my mouth.
“I mentioned I was 15 and said ‘what are you doing?’ and he said I was turning into a beautiful woman and grabbed my chest.
“I pushed him off and he saw I was freaked out and scared and he just got into a rage and started screaming at me.” She reported the matter to the police the same month after telling her parents what had happened and Fayed was interviewed later that year.
The case was handled by Rene Barclay, the CPS’s then director of complex casework, whose role included handling cases deemed “high profile”. In 2009 he announced that no charges would be brought.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said on Thursday: “In May 2008, police received an allegation of sexual assault alleged to have occurred in London.
“The report was thoroughly investigated, including examination of CCTV, speaking to potential witnesses and analysis of telephone data.
“Following this, a case was referred to the CPS for consideration, who concluded that no further action should be taken.”
The alleged victim told the BBC she was informed that part of the reason no charges were brought was because she had got the day of the week wrong in her description of when the assault happened.
The CPS said the teenager’s complaint was the only time a file on Fayed was passed on to them by police.
In 2018, 2021 and 2023, after Sir Keir had left the CPS, it provided “early investigative advice” to the Met following complaints made about Fayed, but “a full file of evidence was never received in each of these instances”.
Another woman contacted the police in 2013 and again in 2015 but the CPS say they had no involvement in that case.
In the BBC documentary Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods, women who worked at the department store between the 1980s and the 2000s said assaults happened at the company’s offices, at Fayed’s Park Lane apartment and on foreign trips.
The broadcaster says Harrods not only failed to intervene but also helped cover up allegations against Fayed.
‘Utterly Appalled’
The current owners of Harrods said they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations, stressing that the company today was “very different”.
Bruce Drummond, a barrister from a legal team representing several of the women, said: “The spider’s web of corruption and abuse in this company was unbelievable and very dark.”
Commander Kevin Southworth who leads on Public Protection for the Met said: “We are aware of various allegations of sexual offences made over a number of years in relation to the late Mohammed Al-Fayed which were reported to the Met.
“Each one was investigated and, where appropriate, advice from the Crown Prosecution Service was sought. No charges resulted from these investigations.
“As with any investigation, if any further information comes to light it will be assessed and investigated accordingly.”
