Fresh allegations have been made against former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed by a former employee who claims her manager “ignored it” when she complained about inappropriate advances.
The woman, named as Catherine, contacted the BBC after reports this week of other women claiming to have been sexually assaulted by the late billionaire.
Catherine said she was a 21-year-old Harrods employee when she was called into Fayed’s office where he made “uncomfortable” advances, including kissing her on the forehead, inviting her to work in his office and saying he was her boyfriend.
Harrods’ current owners said earlier this week they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations and that “victims have been let down”.
They said they were not aware of any allegations until 2023, but lawyers for the dozens of plaintiffs say that is “inconceivable” and argue that the owners would have conducted due diligence checks when they purchased the business in 2010.
Lawyers say Fayed’s attacks took place around the world, including in the United States, Canada, France, Malaysia and Dubai.
“This is a global case, it’s not just a UK case. It’s happened all over the world,” lawyer Bruce Drummond told the BBC.
For Catherine, her experience took place in the Harrods flagship store in London.
When she spoke to her manager about the incident, it was ignored – and she sees it as an example of a wider culture of “collusion” at Harrods that enabled Fayed’s behaviour.
“I explained to (my manager) what had happened… and he completely ignored it and said, ‘oh, you know, that’s just how he is’,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
She was “in a very subordinate role” when one weekend He was asked to bring the musicians from the store to Fayed’s office, after which he demanded their immediate return.
“So I went back upstairs and we went into a little room in the back, just him and me,” she said.
Fayed invited her to take a job in his office, she said — an offer she declined because it did not fit her area of expertise.
“He then took my hand and asked if I had a boyfriend and I politely laughed and said yes.
“And he said, ‘No, you don’t have a boyfriend, I’m your boyfriend, you don’t need this donkey’ – which was weird and obviously I’m getting more and more uncomfortable at this point.”
She said Fayed then kissed her on the forehead, told her to think about the job and handed her £300 in cash – which she returned shortly afterwards, along with a formal rejection of the position.
“He kissed me on the forehead. I know a lot of people have talked about that fatherly approach, but I have limits. It was horrible, and you know, holding my hand, being really close to him, it wasn’t normal,” she said.
She said she contacted the BBC this week to add weight to the allegations against Fayed.
More than 20 women have told the BBC that the businessman sexually assaulted or raped them while they worked at the luxury department store Harrods in London.
A legal team is representing at least 37 women who have filed civil lawsuits. They say they have received 150 new requests since the BBC investigation was published last week.
Catherine said she felt her experience, compared to the rape allegations, “is like nothing at all – but I think it’s important to provide some kind of evidence of a pattern of behaviour and culture.”
She condemned the working environment at Harrods which she said allowed such abuse to occur regularly – allegations the department store has denied. Harrods was owned by Fayed from 1985 to 2010 and is now under new ownership – who said this week the business was operating differently to how it had under Fayed.
Catherine told the BBC: “It was well known that he behaved in a certain way and that he preyed on young women, and that young women were recruited to work on the shop floor or in his office.
“And it seemed to go without question.”
His comments were echoed by other accusers. who said many people at Harrods were aware of Fayed’s alleged behaviour. Concerns have also been raised about his conduct at Fulham Football Club, which he once owned.
“I think there were people at Harrods at the time who were complicit and they are as guilty as Fayed because they were not just passive bystanders. In fact, they were helping one girl after another live through a nightmare,” Catherine said.
She called for the “individuals” to be identified and “questioned about their collusion.”
“This is essentially manipulation, as the evidence suggests, and they should be brought to justice,” she added.
Catherine’s testimony comes as more women come forward to speak out about Fayed’s behavior. New details have also emerged about the failed efforts by police and prosecutors to hold Fayed accountable while he was alive.
A legal team representing many of the women the BBC spoke to presented their case against Harrods on Friday.
The store’s new owners said: “These are the actions of an individual determined to abuse his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms.”
“We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were abandoned and for this we offer our most sincere apologies.”
Mr Drummond, one of the women’s lawyers, said the number of allegations that have emerged is “enormous”.
“This is the worst case of corporate sexual exploitation of young women that the world has probably ever seen.”
