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A woman who alleges she was preyed upon by Mohamed Al Fayed has claimed the former Harrods boss bugged her flat and phone, and left her feeling threatened “until the moment he died”.
The shocking account was one of five shared with the BBC on Wednesday morning, after dozens of sexual misconduct allegations were raised against Mr Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, in an investigation by the broadcaster.
The interviews also followed a press conference last week at which a legal team representing alleged victims called the Egyptian billionaire a “monster” as more people came forward.
Jen, who worked for Mr Al Fayed for nearly five years, told BBC Breakfast she had waived her anonymity to encourage others to come forward “without fear of any consequences”.
She claimed he had subjected her to serious sexual assaults and attempted rape, but said she had not “told a soul” because her former boss “still felt like a threat until the moment he died”.
She said: “I, as far as I’m aware, was one of the earlier people to work for him at Harrods, and I felt at the time it was just happening to me. Isolation was a really important thing for him, he made you feel like you were the only person he was doing this to.
“But you have to remember as well that our phones were tapped, there was surveillance cameras in our office. I had a flat in Park Lane that was given to me by Mohamed to live in, and I found out later also had cameras in it.
“So we never had the opportunity to speak to one another and try and find that common ground that this wasn’t just happening to you, because we were constantly living in fear of the fact that we were being listened to and watched at all times.”
Jen also claimed Mr Al Fayed had told her to call him “Papa” and had given her the apartment under the guise of protecting her from having to travel at night.
She added: “I was terrified to leave. I had threats made against myself and my and family if I were to leave and speak about it. So it took me a great deal of courage to be able to even voice the words.”
Speaking alongside Jen, the programme heard from other women who worked for Mr Al Fayed, in some instances decades apart from one other. One woman described the alleged abuse she had suffered at his hands as inflicting “life-long trauma”, while another said: “Harrods will never leave me.”
Several described his allged behaviour as becoming more frightening during work trips abroad, with several accounts centring around the Ritz Paris hotel, which he had owned.
Katharine claimed she had to barricade herself in her hotel room because the door didn’t lock, only for Mr Al-Fayed to later force himself upon her in his office, she alleged. After she claimed to fight him off, and say “I’m a PA, and a PA only”, he told her: “Well, you should have gone to work in the Post Office if that’s what you wanted.”
“And the next day my desk was gone and I lost my job,” she said.
Lindsay, who worked as his PA for five months between 1989 and 1990, accused Fayed of having sexually harassed and assaulted her, groping her on a daily basis before trafficking her to Paris, where he attempted rape her.
She has no memory of her journey home from Paris, but did sustain significant injuries, and presumed she was drugged. Lindsay alleged she was then falsely imprisoned in the Harrods management offices by a colleague under Fayed’s instruction, but managed to escape.
Gemma, who also worked as Fayed’s PA between between 2007 and 2009, alleged she was raped by the Harrod boss in Paris.
She said: “In my time, there must have been hundreds of women brought up to the offices, disappeared into meeting rooms and then left crying.
“But it was such a secrecy surrounding it all. You were terrified to speak out and ask questions, so you kind of … internalise ‘is it just me?’.”
Harrods’ current owners said last week they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations and are carrying out an internal review into whether current staff were involved in the allegations, “directly or indirectly”.
The statement said: 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.”
