Former Harrods staff who were sexually abused by Mohamed Al Fayed have called for a boycott of the luxury store as it was revealed that more than 400 victims of his predatory behaviour had come forward.
Three victims of Fayed’s abuse posed with tote bags with the Harrods logo crossed out during a press conference by the Justice for Harrods Survivors group.
Lawyers for the group revealed they had been approached by 421 people, most of whom alleged they were sexually abused or harassed by Fayed when he was the owner of Harrods from 1985-2010.
Bruce Drummond KC, at New Bailey Chambers, said: “That is industrial scale abuse – abuse that could have only been perpetrated with a system that enabled the abuse to happen.
“The majority of those contacting us are from the UK but the claims against Harrods and Fayed are still coming in from all around the world: Canada, Asia, Australia, America and Europe.”
One of the victims, who wanted to be identified only as Lindsay, described Harrods as “a store that enabled the rape and sexual abuse of so many young and innocent women … So we don’t think that people should be shopping there. We think they should be going elsewhere.”
Jen, who was backing a boycott, said: “It’s horrifying and it’s incredibly sad – we thought there were only few of us that went through this, and we’re realising it’s hundreds and hundreds of women over a 25- to 30-year period.”
Lawyers for the survivors questioned the independence of Harrods’ own investigation into Fayed’s behaviour when he was the chair. The barrister Maria Mulla asked: “Who from Harrods designed and is leading this ongoing internal review? Did anyone who was still within the business from the Al Fayed’s time, recuse themselves from discussion over the design and execution of this review?”
She confirmed that four of Fayed’s victims had withdrawn from a settlement scheme set up by Harrods, over concerns that it was being managed by a consultant who had been employed at the store when Fayed was chair.
Asked how many “enablers” of Fayed’s alleged sexual misconduct had been identified by the group, Mulla said: “It was a very large web. Some of them are still alive – it’s not in our ability to name names or announce who those individuals are.”
The lawyers also confirmed the first letter of claim had been sent to the London department store. “It’s the first of hundreds to come; it’s going to snowball and snowball,” Drummond said.
Six of the accusers are Australian women. Drummond told Australian broadcaster ABC on Thursday that five were employed at Harrods and one worked for a supplier. All were in their 20s.
“It was the most wonderful thing they had, quite understandably, working for this amazing store, working for this very powerful individual who was a billionaire … then a lot of them, after they had been subjected to this horrific ordeal, fled [back to Australia],” he said.
The Metropolitan police asked prosecutors to decide whether to charge the former Harrods and Fulham FC owner in relation to only two of 21 women who made allegations, including of rape and sexual assault, between 2005 and 2023.
Evidence was shown to the Crown Prosecution Service in 2009 and 2015 but it decided not to proceed with either because there was not “a realistic prospect of conviction”.
Dean Armstrong KC said many of the victims were sceptical about the police investigations. He said: “In lots of cases there are trust issues, because a lot of our survivors in their hours of need went to the police and little or nothing was done.”
Jen said after helping Vanity Fair with an article about Fayed’s abuse, she was contacted by John Mcnamara, a former Met detective.
She said: “I was contacted by John Mcnamara, who was then head of security from Mohamed, who asked me to think very carefully about my involvement in Vanity Fair and just to remind me that he knew where I lived and he knew where my parents lived, and wouldn’t it be terrible if something would happen to either them or myself? It’s that kind of terror that kept us all so quiet for so long.”
Fayed died in 2023 at the age of 94.
Harrods referred to a previous statement by its managing director, Michael Ward, in which he acknowledged the store had failed its colleagues. He said if he had known about Fayed’s criminality and abuse he would have acted immediately. He added: “This was a shameful period of the business’s history, however the Harrods of today is unrecognisable to Harrods under his ownership.”
