The legal team representing the alleged victims of the former owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, say the late billionaire was a “monster” whose crimes were “enabled” by the high-end department store.
At least 37 women have accused Al-Fayed, who died in 2023 aged 94, of sexually assaulting them, barrister Dean Armstrong told reporters in London Friday. Armstrong said Al-Fayad was a “monster” who committed a “vast web of abuse.”
Setting out the legal claim being brought against Harrods, Armstrong said Al-Fayad was “enabled by a system” that pervaded the store.
“This is and was a systematic failure of corporate responsibility, and that systematic failure is on the shoulders of Harrods,” Armstrong said.
The legal team involved in the BBC investigation claimed Harrods knew of Al Fayed’s alleged crimes. The store showed an “abject failure of corporate responsibility, and a failure to provide a safe system of work,” Armstrong said.
The team called the case “horrific,” comparing it to that of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile who died in jail before he could face trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, and of Jimmy Savile, a British television personality who was revealed to a be a prolific sexual offender after his death.
Barrister Bruce Drummond described the case as “one of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation that certainly I, and perhaps the world, has ever seen.”
Harrods apologized to victims in a statement Thursday, saying it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by its former owner. The billionaire businessman owned the department store between 1985 and 2010.
In the statement, Harrods said that “new information came to light” last year about historic allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by Al-Fayed.
Since then, it said, “it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved.”
It is unclear if the current owners will be liable for the alleged crimes committed under Harrods’ previous ownership, and whether they will be responsible for compensating the alleged victims and survivors of abuse.
Speaking at the news conference, Gloria Allred, a world-leading women’s rights attorney who has represented women who said they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, described Al-Fayed as “the epitome of a serial sexual abuser.”
The allegations against Al-Fayed include “serial rape, attempted rape, sexual battery and sexual abuse of minors,” Allred detailed.
London’s Fulham Football Club, which Al-Fayed owned between 1997 and 2013, said in a statement posted on X on Friday: “We are deeply troubled and concerned to learn of the disturbing reports following yesterday’s documentary. We have sincere empathy for the women who have shared their experiences.”
It added that it was working to establish whether anyone at the club had been affected.
The Egyptian-born Al-Fayed was a fixture of the business and celebrity world in Britain during his life. Al Fayed’s son, Dodi Fayed, died in 1997 along with Princess Diana in a high-speed car crash in Paris.