To date, more than 400 alleged victims have contacted the legal team working on a case against the late Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, accused of sexual abuse and rape, lawyer Dean Armstrong said on Thursday (31).
A BBC documentary in September revealed that Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, sexually abused female employees at his London department store Harrods, forced them to undergo medical tests and threatened them with consequences if they tried to seek redress.
“The sheer scale of abuse perpetrated by Al Fayed, and facilitated by those around him, unfortunately continues to grow,” Armstrong said at a news conference in London.
Al Fayed always denied similar accusations raised by other reports before his death. Harrods did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the lawyer’s statements at first.
The store apologized, said it was “shocked” by the allegations and opened proceedings for any current or former Harrods employee who wishes to seek compensation.
Another lawyer, Bruce Drummond, said the more than 400 complaints were made by women from around the world, mainly from the United Kingdom, but also from the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Spain, South Africa and other countries.
“This, in our opinion, is abuse on an industrial scale,” Drummond said, adding that the abuse took place “within the walls of Harrods” but also at other locations linked to Al Fayed’s business empire, such as Fulham Football Club, the Ritz Paris and its Surrey estate.
The victims include the daughter of a former US ambassador to the United Kingdom and the daughter of a well-known football player, Drummond said, without naming names.
According to the BBC documentary, Harrods did not intervene and help cover up allegations of abuse during his ownership period.
Lawyers have criticized the compensation scheme operated by Harrods, saying some victims do not feel comfortable contacting Harrods directly for compensation because that is where the abuse took place.
Drummond said some senior members of staff from Al Fayed’s time still work at Harrods.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that four alleged victims had abandoned the Harrods compensation scheme due to concerns about potential conflicts of interest and poor communication.
Several press organizations had reported allegations of sexual abuse against Al Fayed before the BBC documentary, including Vanity Fair in 1995, ITV in 1997 and Channel 4 in 2017. Lawyers said in September that many of the women only felt capable to speak publicly in the BBC report after he died last year.
This content was originally published in More than 400 alleged victims of former Harrods owner seek prosecution lawyer on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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