Ladies accuse surviving brother of Al Fayed of sexual assaults

Three former Harrods staff have accused Mohamed Al Fayed’s solely surviving brother of sexually assaulting them whereas they have been working for the division retailer.

Talking publicly for the primary time, the ladies say Ali Fayed, 82, assaulted them within the Nineties when he and his brothers, Mohamed and Salah, owned and ran Harrods.

A spokesperson for Mr Fayed, who lives within the US, mentioned the businessman “is not going to be scapegoated” and he “unequivocally denies any and all of the allegations of wrongdoing” and that “the incidents merely by no means came about”.

Warning: This story comprises descriptions of sexual violence

The alleged sexual assaults occurred in London, Scotland, Switzerland and the US. One of many girls, a former inside designer for Harrods, says one assault occurred on a piece journey whereas she was staying with Ali Fayed and his household at their former residence in Connecticut.

“His palms have been in all places,” she says, and he stopped as a result of “certainly one of his little boys began calling for him”.

All three girls say previous to Ali Fayed’s alleged assaults, they’d additionally been sexually abused by his older brother. Police say 111 girls have now made allegations in opposition to Mohamed Al Fayed, who added the Arabic “Al” prefix to his surname someday within the Nineteen Seventies.

One of many girls, Amy, has instructed the BBC she needs “an evidence” from Ali Fayed, and an “understanding of what was happening that may assist [her] step ahead and start therapeutic”.

All three say they did not really feel in a position to converse out on the time.

“That is my probability to lastly arise for myself. I am not going to be that scared 24-year-old who would not know what to do,” says Frances – who, like Amy, has waived her proper to anonymity.

Frances took a job working for Harrods within the retailer’s inside design studio in 1989.

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Mohamed Al Fayed started to bully and sexually abuse her, she says. Frances says she remembers him recurrently making an attempt to seize her breasts and grope her whereas at work, or subjecting her to “foul” verbal tirades.

Regardless of not having a lot expertise, Frances says she was tasked with renovating Mohamed Al Fayed’s sprawling Scottish Balnagown Property, together with a farmhouse belonging to his youthful brother, Ali.

Frances describes Ali Fayed’s manner as calmer than that of Mohamed.

“I believe for a second I assumed perhaps he could be kinder to me,” she says. “However he wasn’t.”

Ali Fayed, like Mohamed, additionally had a personal workplace and personal condo in 60 Park Lane in central London.

It was in Ali’s workplace the place Frances says his sexual abuse began with him “making an attempt to kiss” her, adopted by him “groping” and “molesting” her.

She says each the Fayed brothers would recurrently give her presents. “With Mohamed, it could usually be wads of money, Ali would give jewelry or garments. It will be a see-saw between abusive behaviour then reward for my work and these lavish gadgets.”

The abuse escalated in 1992, she says, when she flew to Connecticut to debate inside design plans with Ali Fayed’s spouse.

“It was this enormous non-public home and it was adorned in an English nation home fashion. I do not suppose I might ever seen something prefer it in my life,” says Frances.

“I keep in mind his spouse taking me into this picture-perfect American wealthy city.”

Frances says she was staying in a visitor room on the household’s home when Ali Fayed instructed her to get modified for dinner one night.

“I used to be within the toilet and bought undressed. After I got here out in my underwear, he [Ali] was simply standing there within the room. I hadn’t heard him are available in or knock.”

Frances says Ali Fayed bought her on the mattress and tried to get on prime of her. His palms have been “inside my bra, inside my pants. I knew what his intention was”.

In keeping with Frances the alleged assault stopped when certainly one of Ali’s kids known as out for him. Afterwards, she says she sat on the mattress, “frozen”.

A spokesperson for Ali Fayed mentioned the businessman “shouldn’t be a perpetrator” and can “robustly defend himself in opposition to these unsubstantiated claims”.

When Frances returned to work in London, she says Mohamed Al Fayed “exploded” and began “aggressively spitting abusive phrases” as a result of he apparently believed she and Ali had had intercourse .

She says he instructed her: “I am achieved with you… go be with my brother.”

“From that time, I might nonetheless see Mohamed, and he’d nonetheless name me each title beneath the solar, however he did not really bodily abuse me,” says Frances.

“Now I used to be in worry of two of the house owners and I knew if I spoke out it could worsen. I may very well be threatened, I may very well be fired. I simply felt I needed to carry on going and, sooner or later, this horror would go.”

Frances says Ali Fayed sexually assaulted her once more later that 12 months on a visit to Balnagown, the place she was including the ending inside touches to his farmhouse.

Ali known as her into his non-public workplace, she says, then dragged her onto his lap and began kissing her neck and touching her breasts as he spun round in his chair.

She says she might really feel he was aroused via his trousers.

“I keep in mind him laughing,” remembers Frances, who says she ultimately managed to interrupt free and run out of the room. “Laughter is supposed to be good. It wasn’t. I left him there simply laughing at me.”

Ali Fayed would usually attempt to sexually contact her after they met, she says, “at all times laughing and joking and making out it was enjoyable”.

The next 12 months, Frances says she was fired for being in a relationship with one other worker, one thing she says Mohamed Al Fayed forbade amongst employees. Harrods later settled a case she introduced for unfair dismissal.

Frances describes her time after leaving Harrods as “going underground and shutting myself down”. She struggled to work and belief individuals and ultimately moved away. She says Mohamed and Ali Fayed “took away” her confidence and dignity.

“To this present day I undergo with horrible anxiousness and panic assaults and I do not like individuals in my area,” she says.

Mohamed Al Fayed and his youthful brothers purchased Harrods in 1985. Whereas Mohamed was the chairman, operating day-to-day operations of the luxurious division retailer, Ali Fayed was a director and likewise helped oversee the Home of Fraser group, which they owned within the early Nineties.

The brand new claims level to the “breadth of abuse” by Mohamed Al Fayed and “increase critical allegations” in opposition to his brother Ali, Harrods instructed the BBC in an announcement.

“We couldn’t probably converse on behalf of any particular person who can, and will, reply to those allegations straight,” it added.

The shop, which got here beneath new possession in 2010, mentioned it hoped survivors have been “each acceptable avenue to them of their pursuit of justice, whether or not that be Harrods, the police or the Fayed household and property”.

Ali Fayed, who was granted British citizenship in 1999, co-owns luxurious British shirtmaker Turnbull and Asser along with his sons – however resigned as director on 8 December 2024, 10 days after these allegations have been put to him by the BBC.

All three girls alleging abuse by Ali Fayed initially spoke to filmmaker Keaton Stone, who has been investigating Mohamed Al Fayed since 2018 and whose work knowledgeable the BBC’s latest documentary and podcast about Mohamed’s predatory behaviour.

Mohamed Al Fayed by no means confronted expenses whereas he was alive, however the girls consider his brother Ali ought to now be investigated by police.

“Whether or not any expenses could be introduced, I do not know, however I consider he must be investigated for what he did,” says Amy.

She labored as a private assistant to Mohamed Al Fayed for nearly three years, and says he sexually abused her all through her time at Harrods. The abuse escalated, Amy says, when Mohamed let himself into her room on a piece journey to Paris and tried to rape her.

She says she “endured” the abuse, pondering “that was simply what being a younger lady meant, it was a hazard of the office”.

Amy says she remembers Ali Fayed coming into Mohamed’s Park Lane workplace – and likewise taking cellphone calls from him. “He gave me the nickname ‘Amy talking’ which he thought was hilarious,” she remembers. “He would giggle when he spoke to me.”

A 12 months or two into the job, Amy says Mohamed instructed her to go to Switzerland with Ali to assist with some private assistant duties like submitting and paperwork.

The pair travelled collectively on a Harrods non-public jet, she says, and have been pushed to the upmarket resort of Gstaad, the place the Fayed household owned a ski chalet.

“As soon as we bought to the chalet, except for the aged housekeeper, it was myself and Ali alone for 3 days. It was unusual,” says Amy. “No efforts have been made to even create one thing for me to do.”

The journey was taken out of season and Amy says Ali Fayed appeared bored. He urged they go to the native public swimming pool, she says, and after they bought there it was abandoned.

“That is when Ali’s manner modified and he turned giddy,” says Amy.

“He pulled me in beneath the water, and groped and fondled me, making me really feel very, very uncomfortable – very a lot trapped. I used to be terrified pondering how am I going to get out of this.”

Amy says Ali Fayed laughed as he “groped” her, earlier than she managed to interrupt freed from his clutches.

After the alleged assault, Amy says they each returned to the chalet and she or he was left alone for the remainder of the night, feeling remoted and afraid.

Like the opposite two girls, Amy did not inform anybody concerning the alleged abuse by both of the brothers.

Amy says she did not wish to upset her family members and did not essentially really feel individuals would consider her.

“By not saying something, I believe it is a coping method, to only put it away,” she provides.

Amy went again to work after the alleged assault came about in Gstaad, however ultimately resigned.

She says she “escaped and ran away” to work overseas.

“I wished to only take away myself from all of it”, she says, however “the trauma” lived along with her.

“To this present day, in sure social conditions, I do not wish to be observed, I attempt to keep invisible,” she says.

Ali Fayed denies all of the allegations of wrongdoing – mentioned his spokesperson – and “is not going to enable false accusations to go unchallenged”.

A 3rd lady, who we’re calling Laura, instructed us she remembers Mohamed Al Fayed summoning her to his workplace and telling her “with a smirk on his face” that his brother Ali wished to see her.

“I keep in mind it vividly as a result of I had no comprehension of who Ali was, I might by no means even seen him,” she says. “I do not know the way I used to be noticed or ‘chosen’ for him.”

Laura had been working straight for Mohamed Al Fayed in Harrods’ HR division and says his sexual harassment in the direction of her had grow to be commonplace, escalating to 2 critical sexual assaults.

Laura says Mohamed despatched her to their workplace constructing in Park Lane one night, however when she arrived there was no work to be achieved. She says she was despatched via to Ali Fayed’s condo the place he was ready. Laura says he instructed her they’d be having dinner, after which offered her with a bottle of wine from the 12 months she was born and a necklace.

“I questioned how he knew issues about me,” she says.

Alone in his condo, Laura says Ali Fayed ordered her via to the bed room the place she says she was subjected to a critical sexual assault. She says she felt “numbed with worry” and needed to do no matter she was instructed with the intention to “get out of there”.

“Afterwards he simply instructed me I might go.”

Laura says she by no means noticed Ali Fayed once more however saved the necklace from that night time and it has just lately been valued at £6,500.

The abuse at Harrods “took its toll” says Laura – even after she left the shop. She bottled all of it up for 25 years, she says, and nonetheless hasn’t instructed a few of her family members what she went via.

All three girls are pursuing civil authorized motion in opposition to Harrods via Justice for Harrods Survivors.

“We applaud the bravery of the ladies who’ve spoken out on their allegations in opposition to Ali Fayed and reiterate our dedication to securing justice and accountability for all survivors,” says their barrister Maria Mulla.

“We repeat, no stone might be left unturned in pursuit of this goal.”

The BBC spoke to 3 different girls who mentioned they’d been both raped, sexually assaulted or trafficked by the opposite Fayed brother, Salah, who died of pancreatic most cancers in 2010.

The ladies who accuse Ali Fayed query what the three brothers knew about one another’s behaviour.

“Trying again now, perhaps they discovered it amusing to see how far the boundaries have been with us between the brothers,” says Amy. “Perhaps there was competitors. I actually do not know, however I do really feel it was all amusing for them.”

Ali Fayed’s spokesperson says he “unequivocally denies any and all allegations of wrongdoing. The alleged incidents merely by no means occurred. Mr Fayed shouldn’t be a perpetrator and won’t be scapegoated. He’ll robustly defend himself in opposition to these unsubstantiated claims and won’t enable false accusations to go unchallenged.”

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