Former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed has been accused of rape, with five former employees claiming the late billionaire sexually assaulted them at the luxury London department store.
A new BBC documentary claims the Egyptian-born businessman, who died in London aged 94 last August, carried out the attacks during his tenure at the establishment between 1984 and its sale in 2010.
The corporation says more than 20 former Harrods employees have come forward to accuse it of sexual abuse.
The new programme, called Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, claims that the company itself not only failed to intervene to help the alleged victims, but also covered up their allegations.
The current owners of the store have said they are “totally appalled” by the allegations and have apologised to the women affected.
Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed has been accused of sexual assault by several women, including one, Gemma, who worked as his personal assistant between 2007 and 2009.
A new BBC documentary claims the Egyptian-born businessman, who died in London aged 94 last August, carried out the attacks while he was boss of Harrods between 1984 and its sale in 2010.
The corporation says more than 20 former Harrods employees have come forward to accuse Al Fayed (pictured) of sexual abuse.
Bruce Drummond, a lawyer representing some of the former employees, said: “The web of corruption and abuse at this company was unbelievable and very dark.”
The alleged attacks are said to have occurred not only in London, but also in Paris and Saint Tropez in France and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
One of the women involved, who says Fayed raped her at his flat in London’s Park Lane district, told BBC investigators: “I made it clear I didn’t want that to happen.
“I didn’t consent. I just wanted it to end.”
Another woman described being raped at the Mayfair address as a teenager and described Harrods staff as her “playthings”.
She said: ‘Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass.
“We were all very scared. He actively encouraged fear. If he said ‘jump,’ employees would ask, ‘How high?'”
One of his alleged victims was identified as Gemma, who worked for Al Fayed as a personal assistant between 2007 and 2009, and recounts how his behaviour became more frightening during work trips abroad.
She says he raped her at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne, a former home of King Edward VIII after his abdication and that of his wife Wallis Simpson.
She described waking up to find him trying to get into bed with her, adding: “I said, ‘No, I don’t want you to do that.'”
‘And he kept trying to get into bed, at which point he was on top of me and I couldn’t really move anywhere.
“I was face down on the bed and he just pressed himself against me.”
Fayed was accused of sexual assault when he was alive, but the BBC now says it believes many more women may have been victims of him.
Harrods said in a statement to the BBC: ‘The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Mr Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010.
‘It is a strategy that seeks to put the well-being of our employees at the centre of everything we do.’
