About one hundred enquiries have been made to a legal team since a BBC documentary aired about the claims, according to one of the barristers representing 37 of the late billionaire’s accusers.
Speaking at a press conference, barrister Bruce Drummond said the cases were “rapidly evolving and expanding every day”.
It comes during continued fallout from the broadcaster’s exposé, in which more than 20 female former employees of the luxury store have spoken out with allegations of assault and physical violence over a 25-year-period.
On Friday, it was revealed that one woman who accused Fayed of sexual assault was allegedly warned she might “have an accident” by his bodyguard.
After making a formal complaint to Harrods, the woman is said to have received a note from the late John Macnamara, a former Metropolitan Police officer, saying she must rescind her allegation.
“You are a girl alone in London, someone could jump out the bushes at you, or you could have a sudden accident,” the note said.
The allegation came as a lawyer representing dozens of women who claim to have been abused by Fayed insisted Harrods must take responsibility for the years of sexual abuse allegedly committed by the “monster”.
At least 37 women who have accused the late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual abuse, including five claiming they were raped by Fayed, who died last year aged 94. Photo / AFP
Dean Armstrong KC, a barrister who is representing some of the tycoon’s reported victims, told a press conference that the case “combines some of the most horrific elements of the cases involving Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein”.
He said: “I have many years of practice... I have never seen a case as horrific as this.”
Addressing how the case combined elements of three of the most high-profile abuse scandals, he said: “Savile because in this case, as in that, the institution, we say, knew about the behaviour.
“Epstein because in that case, as in this, there was a procurement system in place to source the women and girls – as you know, there are some very young victims.
“And Weinstein, because it was a person at the very top of the organisation who was abusing his power.
Michael Ward, the managing director of Harrods, was under pressure from staff who rubbished claims that the organisation had changed since Fayed’s alleged actions had taken place.
Harrods said in a statement that the company was “a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Fayed”, and that it “seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything [they] do”.
United Voices of the World (UWV), a union that represents low-paid and migrant workers, said organisers wrote to Harrods demanding an urgent meeting to discuss its members’ concerns, but claimed it had been refused.
On Friday, UVW accused Harrods’ current bosses of fostering “a culture of secrecy and fear” in the workplace.
In a statement, it said: “The imbalance of power within the company makes it impossible for workers to be sure that any concerns they have will be acknowledged and dealt with accordingly.
“The general feeling among Harrods’ workers is that we are at the bottom of the company’s priorities, forced into submission with the odds stacked against us.”
They pointed out that Ward, who has been in the post since 2005, oversaw the luxury retailer both while it was under Fayed’s ownership and afterwards.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Ward.
A Harrods spokesman said: “UVW is not a recognised union by Harrods and therefore we do not engage with this organisation on our policies. We work with Unite as our recognised union.”
Petros Ella, the general secretary at UVW, said: “Harrods might claim to be a very different organisation but that is not the experience of many of our members who have now chosen to speak up.
“If Harrods continues to refuse to engage with UVW and our members – their employees – we will be left with no choice but to ballot them, yet again, for industrial action.”
More than 20 women claimed they were sexually assaulted by the billionaire and five of those said they were raped.
The women, who worked at Harrods from the late 1980s to the 2000s, said assaults were carried out at the company’s offices, in Fayed’s London apartment or on foreign trips, often at the Ritz hotel in Paris.
In the expose, the BBC claimed that Harrods not only failed to intervene but also helped cover up allegations against Fayed.
Security told victim she might ‘have an accident’ after reporting assault
Maria Mulla, another barrister representing the victims, revealed that Fayed’s former head of security told a victim that she might meet with an “accident” after she reported being assaulted by Fayed to Harrods.
Mulla said: “One woman that we represent was sexually assaulted, and she had the bravery and courage to raise this in a formal written complaint to Harrods.
“On the same day of making this written complaint, the head of security John Macnamara contacted her and said, ‘You are a girl alone in London, someone could jump out the bushes at you, or you could have a sudden accident.’”
The victim was told to write a second letter contradicting her initial claims and Mulla said she “did as she was told because she was absolutely petrified”.
The barrister also said that they are now investigating other companies owned by Fayed after they were made aware of allegations against him “at other places of work”, such as women who were employed by the Ritz.
The press conference, held by the legal team featured in the BBC documentary Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods, also featured one of the survivors who described Fayed as “clever and highly manipulative”, saying he behaved like a “father figure” to trick his young employees.
Natacha, who was 19 at the time, added that the former Harrods chairman would urge her to “‘call me papa’” and said that he “preyed on the most vulnerable”.
‘A man who really was a monster’
“It feels good to change the legacy of a man who really was a monster,” she said.
At the press conference on Friday morning, Armstrong urged the department store to ensure the victims were properly compensated.
The barrister said: “We are here to say publicly and to the world, or Harrods in front of the world, that it is time that they took responsibility, and it is time that they set matters right, and that is something they should do as soon as possible.”
He added: “They need to face up to accept the responsibility that they have full culpability for the abuse of these women.”
Gloria Allred, the American attorney who has specialised in women’s rights for more than four decades, told the press conference Harrods was a “toxic, unsafe and abusive environment” under Fayed’s chairmanship.
She said: “The allegations against Mohammed Fayed include serial rape, attempted rape, sexual battery, and sexual abuse of minors. They involved doctors administering invasive gynaecological exams as a condition of employment for some of the employees who were targeted by Mohammed Fayed for sexual abuse.
“The allegations also include the unauthorised disclosure to Mohammed Al Fayed of the examination results of employees he targeted for sexual abuse.
“Underneath the Harrods glitz and glamour was a toxic, unsafe and abusive environment.”
‘Epitome of a serial sexual abuser’
Fayed sold Harrods to the Qatari royal family in 2010 in a deal reportedly worth £1.5 billion ($3.2 billion).
The lawyer, who has represented the victims of Weinstein, Epstein and R. Kelly, added: “Al Fayed’s legacy was to pray upon, denigrate, humiliate and abuse female employees for his own sexual gratification.”
She called him the “epitome of a serial sexual abuser” and said that this “is a teaching moment for Harrods” and for corporations all over the world.
Armstong said his team was now working on behalf of 37 alleged victims.
Another barrister, Bruce Drummond, added that the scandal is “one of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation” that he and “perhaps the world has ever seen”.
He said: “It was absolutely horrific and I can’t stress that word enough.”
Drummond said some of Al Fayed’s accusers have ended up in “psychiatric care” and are unable to form relationships decades later because of the “lifelong” trauma.
He said: “This should never have happened and Harrods must accept responsibility for the damage these women have suffered.”
Mulla warned that the lawyers are aware of more harrowing accounts of assault than the ones revealed by the BBC, saying they are “the worst sexual assaults that you can imagine”.
Speaking to the BBC, a Harrods spokesman said: “Since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible. This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.
“While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.”
