Mohamed Al-Fayed’s sexual abuse may have been on a similar scale to Jimmy Savile’s, Harrods’ survivors’ advocate has said.
Speaking to the BBC, Dame Jasvinder Sanghera said Al Fayed’s abuse “went far and wide” and that she had been contacted by a former pupil from a school for deaf children about the abuser.
The school said that as far as it was aware, Al Fayed did not have access to the school and that it took safeguarding seriously.
Scores of allegations against the former department store owner have been made after a BBC expose in September detailing claims of rape, sexual assault and harassment.
“We could be talking about something on the scale of Jimmy Savile,” Dame Jasvinder told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.
“What we do know is that there are many people - and survivors have said this to me already - that were complicit [in Al Fayed’s abuse].
“They looked the other way. This could not have happened without people knowing about it, and he used his position of power and influence.”
Police have previously said that they believed there could be as many as 450 victims of Savile, a former TV presenter and DJ who was unmasked one of Britain’s most notorious sex offenders after his death.
Dame Jasvinder said there were around 290 women engaged in Harrods’ compensation scheme for employees who were abused by Al Fayed, and more than 70 have contacted the BBC to report sexual abuse claims against the billionaire businessman.
She added that she believed there were still others that may not yet have come forward.
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group said last month the majority of the inquiries they were dealing with were “in the Harrods context”, but said others had contacted them from Fulham FC, the Ritz hotel in Paris and elsewhere.
Fayed acquired Harrods for £615 million in 1985. In 2010, after 26 years in charge, he sold the department store to the Qatari royal family for a reported £1.5 billion.
Harrods said in a previous statement: “These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise.
“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.”
