‘I’m petrified of someone that’s no longer alive’, says Mohamed Al Fayed accuser

Allegations of assault and physical violence against the former Harrods owner

A woman who alleges she was raped by her former employer Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian billionaire who owned Harrods for more than 25 years, has said she is still “petrified of someone that’s no longer alive”.

More than 20 female former employees have spoken to the BBC as part of a special investigation, coming forward with allegations of assault and physical violence at properties in London and Paris.

Five women alleged they had been raped by Mr Al Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94, the broadcaster reported.

Harrods’ current owners said they are “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by the late billionaire, adding: “As a business, we failed our employees who were his victims and for this, we sincerely apologise.”

Gemma, who was one of Mr Al Fayed’s personal assistants between 2007 and 2009 and worked for the office of his charitable foundation, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she “would have been too frightened” to get justice while the tycoon was alive.

“Even now, this last few weeks, having to relive all those moments has brought back that fear,” she said.

“And I’m now walking around feeling terrified of somebody that’s dead because he just had that power over you and it’s mad that even today I’m petrified of someone that’s no longer alive.”

Gemma said she was “required” to have gynaecological tests to get the job and believes, looking back, that the tests were checking for sexually transmitted infections.

She claimed Mr Al Fayed started sexually harassing her “immediately” after she started, by making sexual remarks and groping her.

She told the Today programme that Mr Al Fayed tried to come into her room on multiple work trips and spoke of locking herself in rooms and bathrooms and ignoring him when he would come to her door.

She alleged that Mr Al Fayed raped her during a trip to Paris.

Gemma said he directed her to clean herself afterwards, adding: “Looking back now I’m older, more mature, I realise that that was probably to cover up anything, any kind of evidence, anything that would have left his trace on me.”

She said she felt “terrified” afterwards.

“In Paris, there were security guards patrolling the house, there were security guards outside the house, we were locked in a gated property, we’d been escorted there that day by the police, so I felt like I couldn’t even go to the police, even if I could make my way out of the property,” she told Radio 4.

“I couldn’t even contemplate leaving the country because he had my passport, so my only way to leave was with him back on that private jet back to London.”

She said getting back to London was “even more terrifying” because she felt she had no one to turn to, explaining that she and her colleagues were under “surveillance” and that there was a “strong culture of don’t talk about anything relating to him”.

Gemma said going to the police back in London “just wasn’t an option”, adding: “He felt like such a powerful man with so much money and so many professional people around him that were facilitating everything he did.

“It just felt like little old me from a small town outside of London is never going to stand a chance against him, and even if I went to the police, what would they do? It’s my word against his at that point.”

The programme heard she got herself signed off from work with stress within weeks of returning from Paris.

Gemma said that while she was on sick leave, Mr Al Fayed would ring her and threatened to send his security team to take her back to London.

She eventually sought help from a lawyer to help her leave the company properly, she said.

Gemma told of having to destroy recordings she had made of Mr Al Fayed sexually harassing her.

“The HR department during my leaving process had said that in order to leave quietly and quickly, they needed me to destroy all of my evidence,” she told the Today programme.

“They gave me a settlement, they made me shred my evidence and I had to sign an NDA to say I would never speak about it.”

In a statement, Harrods said: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.

“This is why, 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, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved.

“This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.”

Mr Al Fayed was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and came to London in the 1960s and set about building a business empire.

He took control of Harrods in 1985 and later expanded his business interests to include the Paris Ritz and Fulham Football Club.

The tycoon was rarely out of the newspapers, with his most public attack on the House of Windsor and the Establishment over the death of his son and heir Dodi – alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in the world’s most famous car crash.

He spent a decade after the lovers’ 1997 deaths in Paris’s Alma tunnel repeatedly claiming that they were murdered in a plot by the security services and the Duke of Edinburgh.

But he was forced to reluctantly concede defeat after a high-profile six-month inquest in 2007 and 2008.

The billionaire’s relationship with the royal family was depicted in season five of The Crown, where Mr Al Fayed, played by Salim Daw, was seen getting to know Diana.

Mr Al Fayed had previously been accused of sexually assaulting and groping multiple women, but a 2015 police investigation did not lead to any charges.

Published: 19/09/2024 by Radio NewsHub