Mohamed Al Fayed: How culture of fear at Harrods protected a predator
Fayed was a man who used money and power throughout his life to bully and intimidate his way into getting what he wanted.
In the early 1990s, a government investigation concluded he had lied when he bought Harrods. He deployed dirty tricks against Tiny Rowland, his rival in buying the business, and was even accused of stealing items from his safety deposit box at the store.
A few years later, he caused the downfall of Tory politicians when he went public about bribing them to ask questions for him in parliament. He was not a man to be crossed.
Warning: this story contains details some may find distressing.
At Harrods, his personal fiefdom, he created an intimidating atmosphere where a phalanx of bodyguards protected him around the clock and where surveillance equipment was installed in backroom offices.
'He knew where my parents lived'
Alice, not her real name, said she received a phone call from Fayed’s head of security after, in 1995, he found out she had spoken to a journalist about their boss’s behaviour. She says she was 16 years old when Fayed sexually assaulted her.
“He said that I wasn't to be involved in the article and that, if I went against his advice, I should be aware that he knew where my parents lived - It turned me cold.”
Alice didn’t speak about her experiences again until she gave an interview to the BBC recently.
Fayed also corrupted the store’s HR department, which played a role in promoting young women from the shop floor to work in his executive suite - aware of his interest in them.
“We all watched each other walk through that door thinking, ‘you poor girl, it's you today’ and feeling utterly powerless to stop it,” recalls Alice.
We now know that in Gemma’s case a senior member of the Harrods HR department was present in 2009 when lawyers destroyed evidence of his sexual misconduct against her. This included messages he had sent her and tapes of nasty voicemails.
Gemma began working as one of Fayed’s personal assistants in 2007. She says Fayed raped her at his villa in France after she woke to find him next to her bed.
After it was over, she cried while he got up and told her aggressively to wash herself with Dettol. “Obviously he wanted me to erase any trace of him being anywhere near me,” she explains.