The claims against Mohamed Al Fayed

Five women have alleged they were raped by former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed when they worked at the luxury department store, according to a BBC investigation.

The BBC reported it had heard testimony from "more than 20 female ex-employees" who say the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, sexually assaulted or raped them.

As part of a documentary, "Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods", the BBC said it had gathered evidence that during Al Fayed's ownership, "Harrods not only failed to intervene but helped cover up abuse allegations".

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Who is Mohamed Al Fayed?

Al Fayed, who died last year, was the billionaire owner of Harrods, which he ran from 1985 to 2010, before selling the world-famous department store to the Qatari royal family. He was also the owner of Fulham football club and was a well-known public figure throughout the late 80s into the 2000s.

His son, Dodi, was killed in a car crash alongside Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.

What are the allegations against Al Fayed?

Dozens of women have spoken to the BBC claiming they were sexually assaulted by Al Fayed, with allegations from some women who were as young as 15 at the time.

Many of the assaults were said to have happened in the Harrod's offices, in Al Fayed's London apartment on Park Lane or on foreign trips to Paris, St Tropez and Abu Dhabi, with allegations dating back to the 1990s. Many assaults were also alleged to have taken place at the Ritz hotel in Paris, which he also owned.

The women who spoke to the BBC either waived, or partially waived, their right to anonymity to be filmed for the documentary, while others chose to remain anonymous. "Put together, their testimonies reveal a pattern of predatory behaviour and sexual abuse by Fayed", said the BBC.

One woman told the BBC she was raped as a teenager in Al Fayed's Park Lane apartment. "Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass," she told the broadcaster.

Another three women told the BBC they had also been raped by him in the apartment. A fifth woman, named as Gemma, told the programme that Al Fayed had raped her at his Villa Windsor apartment in Paris, and then made her wash herself with disinfectant. "Obviously he wanted me to erase any trace of him being anywhere near me," she told the BBC.

The programme also heard that the Harrod's owner would "regularly tour the department store's vast sales floors and identify young female assistants he found attractive", who would then be placed to work in his offices upstairs.

“We all watched each other walk through that door thinking, 'you poor girl, it's you today' and feeling utterly powerless to stop it," said one former Harrods employee speaking to the BBC.

Has Al Fayed faced other allegations?

Al Fayed faced many sexual assault claims while he was alive, including multiple women in 2018. But the BBC says it believes the allegations uncovered against him now "are of unprecedented scale and seriousness", and that "many more women may have been assaulted".

In 1995, he launched a libel lawsuit against Vanity Fair after an article detailed alleged sexual misconduct, but Al Fayed later agreed to drop the case as long as all the further evidence the magazine had gathered of his sexual misconduct in preparation for a trial was locked away.

What are the accusations against Harrods?

The barristers representing some of the women the BBC spoke to have argued that Harrods was responsible for an unsafe workplace.

"Any place of work has a duty to ensure the safety of its employees. Without question, the company failed these ladies," said Bruce Drummond. "That's why we step in. Because they just did nothing to actually prevent this. They did the opposite. They enabled it".

Another lawyer representing some of the women involved, Dean Armstrong KC, said: "We say there have been clearly attempts by the senior people at Harrods to sweep this under the carpet."

More women are now considering taking legal action against the department store, said the BBC.

What has Harrods' response been? 

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."

Harrods' current owners said they were "utterly appalled" by the allegations and that his victims had been failed.

The Ritz hotel in Paris also told the BBC that it "strongly condemns all forms of behaviour that do not align with the values of the establishment".