Mohamed al Fayed, the late/former owner of the British department store Harrods, faced accusations of being a "predator", whose personal spaces were "like a lion's den" One of the "dozens of women" who denounced Mohamed al Fayed for…
Mohamed al Fayed, the late/former owner of the British department store Harrods, faced accusations of being a "predator", whose personal spaces were "like a lion's den"
One of the "dozens of women" who denounced Mohamed al Fayed for cruel sexual acts of aggression did not just call him a rapist, but "a serial rapist". Mr al Fayed, a billionaire businessman and the father of Princess Diana's boyfriend Dodi (both died in a car crash in Paris in 1997), was exposed in a new BBC documentary, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, to have had raped multiple staff at the storied department store he owned between 1985 and 2010. In fact, after his son's death, he became publicly known as he sought the truth about the accident that his oldest child met, Mr al Fayed was scrutinized by the media when allegations emerged of sexual harassment, even assault. But it was after his death in August last year at 94 that more abuse was revealed, culminating in the bombshell BBC report, broadcast in the UK just two days ago.
Like other accused sex predators, such as the now-in-custody Sean Combs, Mr al Fayed had always denied the allegations. But, in the BBC portrayal of the Egyptian-born, he supposedly scoured the 200-year-old, high-end department store that he owned for 26 years (including looking at recordings from CCTV) for young women he could arrange to meet and then take to glamorous locations and coerced them into intimacy they did not the least desire. The uncovering also showed evidence pointing to not only the store's reticence in intervening, but also their "cover-ups" of the allegations of abuse. Mr Al Fayed reportedly went about unfazed even the when the accusations were beginning to bubble over. The BBC portrayed him as a two-faced horror: "To his customers and celebrity guests, he was all charm, but to many of his female employees, he was a different man, a predator." He was, as well, a man of immense wealth and and considerable power. "That power," the BBC reported, "allowed him to carry out assault at scale over decades." Even, as one accuser, who appeared as 'Ellie', pointed out, when the man was in his relatively advanced years: "He was 79, nearly 80. And I was 15."
Mr al Fayed supposedly scoured the 200-year-old, high-end department store that he owned for 26 years for women he could arrange to meet and then take to glamorous locations and coerce them into intimacy they did not desire
It is amazing that despite what was evidently statutory rape, Mr al Fayed was able to get away with his crimes. One former employee of the store, known to avail anything their customers wanted to buy (including, until 2014, animals. Former US president, the late Ronald Reagan reportedly bought a baby elephant named Gertie at Harrods for a Republican party!), told the BBC, "Anyone who tells you that they didn't know what was going on is lying." The women who appeared in the documentary, spoke up not only of the rape and sexual assault, they claimed they were victims of human trafficking. Mr al Fayed allegedly used intimidation and threat, as well as his security team (at one time, numbered 38) to keep the victims quiet. In Harrods, he created a culture of fear, and through surveillance and body guards protected himself and concealed his despicable actions. Following the airing of Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, the broadcaster reported that "more people have approached the BBC and the metropolitan police with further allegations."
The late billionaire often courted controversy. Although thought to be a charmer, his desperate need to share the news with the Windsors often had him described by the British media as "a thorn in the side of the royal family". His biggest challenge against the royals, many still remember, was his accusation that the car crash that killed his son and Princess Diana (as well as the French driver Henri Paul) was an act of murder that was the work of MI6, allegedly acting on the instructions of the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. He persisted with this charge that practically no one believed to be true for over 10 years. The coroner who conducted the inquest into the deaths declared that there was "not a shred of evidence" to his accusations. His son's death did not diminish his desire to be part of British cultural life, but despite his best efforts, including the ownership of Harrods and other quintessential English businesses (including Fulham Football Club) and considering himself an Anglophile, he died without being bestowed the UK citizenship that he so coveted.
Harrods department store in London. Photo: Harrods
Mohamed Al Fayed was born on January 27, 1929, in Egypt's second-largest city Alexandria, along the Mediterranean coast. He was the son of a schoolteacher who grew up in the slums of the old city although, according to one Vanity Fair report in 1997, he told people he was "born into an old Egyptian family enriched by shipping, land, and industry". Most accounts considered his family background to be "modest". As a young man, he dabbled in sales, peddling lemonade and, at odds with his macho image, sewing machines. And then he joined a furniture importer owned by one Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian better known later as a multimillionaire arms dealer. Mr al Fayed married his boss's sister Samira, who bore him the couple's only child, Dodi. Conjugal felicity would not last and the couple divorced in 1959. Single, he moved to the UK in the 1960s (some reports say, 1970s). Not long later, Mr al Feyd and his brothers bought Ritz hotel (where Coco Chanel stayed) and then, in 1985, the bigger prize, Harrods.
The UK's largest luxury department store with 90,000 square meters of retail space in the borough of Knightsbridge, was founded in 1894 as a grocery store. By the late 1800s, they expanded their business by adding more 'departments' to their space. The 'iconic' building that it is today was constructed in 1905 and now famously accommodates about 300 departments, 20 restaurants, a beauty salon, even a bank. The store, especially under Mohamed al Fayed's watch, was reputed to sell almost anything that could be purchased. Apart from that elephant, outrageous merchandise purportedly transacted include castles and Learjets. In a statement, the current Qatari owner of Harrods sought to distance themselves from Mohamed al Fayed, telling the BBC that they are "utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse" and "condemn [the acts] in the strongest possible terms." In addition, "We also acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise."
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