Mohamed Al Fayed ‘forced staff to take sexual health tests’ as Harrods accused of ‘covering up’ rape claims against him

MOHAMED Al Fayed allegedly forced staff to take sexual health tests with Harrods accused of covering up the rape claims against him.

Five women said they were raped by the Harrods tycoon, who died last year aged 94, and a further 20 female employees allege Al Fayed sexually assaulted them.

Multiple women who worked at Harrods from the late 1980s to 2000s said assaults were carried out at the company’s offices, in Al Fayed’s London apartment, or on foreign trips often in Paris at the Ritz hotel, according to an investigation by the BBC.

The new documentary – called Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods – heard claims that the store not only failed to intervene but also helped cover up allegations against the Egyptian billionaire.

Bruce Drummond, a barrister from a legal team representing a number of the women, said: “The spider’s web of corruption and abuse in this company was unbelievable and very dark.” 

However, Harrods’ current owners said they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations, stressing the company today is “very different”.

Women recruited in their teens and early twenties to work as personal assistants in Al Fayed’s private office claimed that they were required by Wendy Snell, Harrods’s corporate GP, to undertake medicals that included intimate examinations.

Former staff claimed that the medical checkups were advertised as “an extra perk of the job” and because Al Fayed’s son Dodi “had a low immune system”.

However, they later made the harrowing discovery that it was preparing them for sexual abuse by Al Fayed, who was obsessed with hygiene.

One woman claimed she had a smear test and a doctor checked her ovaries.

“My results were sent directly to the chairman so quickly that by the time I had got back to my desk, he knew the results,” she alleged.

It is claimed that Al Fayed would regularly tour the department store’s sales floors to identify young female assistants he found attractive before isolating and attacking them.

Former staff members recalled how the billionaire initially seemed to be a father figure who told them to call him “Papa”.

A Harrods human resources manager between 1990 and 1994 said she was ordered by Al Fayed’s senior assistant to find attractive young sales assistants he had seen in the store and send them to his office.

Tony Leeming, a department manager, admitted: “It was well known and everyone knew about it and it was a joke.”

When female staff worked late, Al Fayed would encourage them to spend the night in apartments in a block he owned in Park Lane in Mayfair.

But multiple women allege that they were then invited to the Egyptian billionaire’s private apartment where he would appear wearing only a silk dressing gown.

Four women claimed Al Fayed raped them at the Park Lane property and 13 said they were sexually assaulted.

One woman told the BBC she was raped as a teenager in Fayed’s Park Lane apartment.

She said: “Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass.”

Some assistants say they were taken to France where there were similar incidents at Villa Windsor in Paris — a former home of Edward VIII after his abdication with his wife Wallis Simpson.

Nine women say they were sexually assaulted by Al Fayed in Paris, including one who said she was raped.

Of the 13 women the BBC spoke to, four say Al Fayed raped them, and all said they felt intimidated by a culture of fear at Harrods.

One woman who spoke to the outlet said she approached police with a rape allegation in 2008 when she was 15, but no charges were filed.

Before the bombshell documentary was released yesterday, Al Fayed had already been accused of groping and sexually assaulting female employees across his lifetime – including a rape allegation which was investigated by police in 2015 but did not lead to any charges.

Now, more women who allege that they were attacked have come forward yesterday after the release of the BBC documentary.

Born in Egypt, Al Fayed was a businessman in the Middle East before moving to the UK in the 1970s.

He took control of Harrods in 1985, and purchased the Ritz hotel in Paris in 1979.

Harrods said it had settled “a number of claims [from women] who alleged historic sexual misconduct by Al Fayed” over the past 18 months.

The store said the women were not required to sign non-disclosure orders, which would prevent them discussing allegations.

Harrods said in a statement to the BBC: “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.

“Since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible.

“This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.

“While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.”