The Australian women are among hundreds of alleged victims who have accused late Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual abuse and rape.
More than 400 alleged victims have contacted the legal team working on a case against Al-Fayed, attorney Dean Armstrong revealed Thursday.
A BBC documentary in September revealed that Al-Fayed, who died last year aged 94, sexually abused female staff at his London department store Harrods, forcing them to undergo medical tests and threatening consequences if they tried to complain. .
“The magnitude of the abuses perpetrated by Al-Fayed and facilitated by those around him, sadly, continues to grow,” Armstrong said at a news conference in London.
Another lawyer for the accuser, Bruce Drummond, told ABC that six of the alleged victims were Australian.
Five of the women worked at Harrods, while the sixth worked for a supplier. All of them were in their twenties at the time of the alleged attacks.
Al-Fayed always denied similar accusations raised by other reports before his death.
When asked for a response, Harrods reminded Reuters of its previous statements about the allegations, in which it apologized, said it was “horrified” by them and that it had launched a process for any current or former Harrods employees who wished to complain. compensation.
The Australian women are among hundreds of alleged victims who have accused the late Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual abuse and rape (Fayed appears with actress Lucy Liu in 2005 at the opening of Harrods’ January sale).
More than 400 alleged victims have contacted the legal team working on a case against Al-Fayed, including six Australians (pictured: the sexual predator on his yacht in 2018).
Drummond said the more than 400 claims have been made by women from around the world, mostly from Britain, but also from the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Spain, South Africa and other countries.
“That, in our view, is abuse on an industrial scale,” Drummond said, adding that the alleged crimes took place “within the walls of Harrods” but also at other locations linked to Al-Fayed’s business empire, such as the Fulham Football Club, the Ritz Paris and his estate in Surrey.
Among the victims was the daughter of a former U.S. ambassador to Britain and the daughter of a well-known soccer player, Drummond said, without naming names.
The BBC documentary said Harrods did not intervene and help cover up allegations of abuse during its ownership.
Al-Fayed relentlessly courted and harbored high-ranking members of the UK royal family
Lawyers have criticized the compensation scheme run by Harrods, saying some of the victims do not feel comfortable contacting Harrods directly for compensation as that is where the abuse unfolded.
Drummond said some senior officials from the Al-Fayed era still worked at Harrods.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that four alleged victims had dropped out of Harrods’ compensation scheme due to concerns about potential conflicts of interest and poor communication.
Allegations of sexual abuse against Al-Fayed had been reported by several media outlets before the BBC documentary, including Vanity Fair in 1995, ITV in 1997 and Channel 4 in 2017.
Lawyers said in September that many of the women only felt able to speak publicly in the BBC report after their deaths last year.