‘I’m terrified for someone who is no longer alive,’ says prosecutor Mohamed Al Fayed – The Irish News

A woman who claims she was raped by her former employer Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian billionaire who owned Harrods for more than 25 years, has said she is still “terrified of someone who is no longer alive”.

More than 20 former female employees have spoken to the BBC as part of a special investigation, alleging assault and physical violence at properties in London and Paris.

Five women allege they were raped by Mr Al Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94, the broadcaster reported.

The current owners of Harrods said they were “deeply shocked” by the allegations of abuse by the late billionaire, adding: “As a company we have failed our employees who were victims of his business and for that we sincerely apologise.”

Gemma, who was one of Al Fayed’s personal assistants between 2007 and 2009 and worked for his charity’s office, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she “would have been too scared” to get justice while the tycoon was still alive.

“Even now, over the past few weeks, reliving all those moments has brought back that fear,” she said.

“And now I walk around feeling terrified of someone who’s dead, because he had just as much power over you. And it’s madness that even today I’m still terrified of someone who’s no longer alive.”

Gemma said she had to undergo gynaecological tests to get the job and in retrospect she believes the tests were to check for sexually transmitted infections.

She alleged that Mr Al Fayed began sexually harassing her “immediately” after she initiated it, making sexual comments and groping her.

She told the Today programme that Mr Al Fayed tried to enter her room during several business trips and that she locked herself in rooms and bathrooms and ignored him when he came to her door.

She alleged that Mr Al Fayed raped her during a trip to Paris.

Gemma said he then told her to clean herself up, adding: “Looking back on it now, I’m older and more mature, I realise he probably did that to hide anything, any kind of evidence, anything that would have left its mark on me.”

She said she felt “terrified” afterward.

“In Paris there were guards patrolling around the house, there were guards outside the house, we were locked in a gated compound, we were escorted there by the police that day, so I felt like I couldn’t even go to the police, even though I could get out of the compound,” she told Radio 4.

“I couldn’t even think about leaving the country because he had my passport, so the only way to leave was with him on that private jet back to London.”

She said it was “even scarier” to return to London as she felt she had no one to turn to, explaining that she and her colleagues were “under surveillance” and that there was a “strong culture of not talking about anything to do with him”.

Gemma said going to the police in London “just wasn’t an option”, adding: “He felt like such a powerful man with so much money and so many professionals around him making everything he did possible.

“I just felt like I, a little old man from a small town outside London, wouldn’t stand a chance against him, and even if I went to the police, what would they do? It’s my word against his at that point.”

The program learned that within weeks of returning from Paris, she had been fired from her job due to stress.

Gemma said Mr Al Fayed called her while she was on sick leave and threatened to send his security team to take her back to London.

Ultimately, she sought help from a lawyer to help her exit the company properly, she said.

Gemma said she had to destroy the footage she had made of Mr Al Fayed sexually harassing her.

“HR told me during my redundancy process that I had to destroy all my evidence so that I could leave as quickly and quietly as possible,” she told the Today programme.

“They offered me a settlement, they made me shred my evidence and they made me sign a non-disclosure agreement saying I would never talk about it.”

In a statement, Harrods said: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010. It is an organisation that puts the wellbeing of its employees at the heart of everything we do.

“That is why, since new information came to light in 2023 about historical allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, our priority has been to resolve the claims as quickly as possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved.

“This process is still available to all current and former Harrods employees.”

Mr Al Fayed was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and moved to London in the 1960s to build a business empire.

In 1985 he took over management of Harrods and later expanded his business interests to include the Paris Ritz and Fulham Football Club.

The tycoon was rarely away from the headlines. His most public attack on the House of Windsor and the establishment came after the death of his son and heir Dodi, along with Diana, Princess of Wales, in the world’s most famous car crash.

Ten years after the lovers’ deaths in 1997 in Paris’s Alma Tunnel, he repeatedly claimed they were murdered in a plot by the security services and the Duke of Edinburgh.

But after a high-profile six-month judicial investigation in 2007 and 2008, he was forced to reluctantly admit defeat.

The billionaire’s relationship with the royal family was depicted in season five of The Crown, which saw Mr Al Fayed, played by Salim Daw, meet Diana.

Mr Al Fayed has previously been accused of sexually abusing and groping several women, but a 2015 police investigation led to no charges.