Within a month, more than 250 women contacted the London department store Harrods to negotiate an amicable settlement and receive compensation following allegations against the former owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed who did not long, about rape and sexual assault, the famous institution said on Tuesday.
After former Fulham player Ronnie Gibbons, who last week accused Al-Fayed of sexually assaulting him in the early 2000s, on Tuesday, the daughter of former English footballer Paul Gascoigne, Bianca Gascoigne, was join the list of women accusing him of similar acts. Sky News reported that she was sexually assaulted by the Egyptian businessman.
Gascoigne, who got a job at Harrods when she was 16, said Al-Fayed was a “charmer” and would bring gifts when she shopped at the store with her parents, creating a “wrong feeling on security” to her about it. because he was “a fatherly man.”
However, she said that after he hired her in his shop, Al-Fayed used to touch her and make her kiss him during weekly meetings.
Bianca Gascoigne (37 years old) said that Al-Fayed once tried to force her to care for him sexually, but she managed to escape.
In addition to Harrods, Al-Fayed owned the English football club Fulham, which he bought in 1997. The wealthy Egyptian businessman died in August 2023 at the age of 94.
Harrods, which owned Al-Fayed between 1985 and 2010, said it had reached settlements from 2023 in “several disputes with women who accused Al-Fayed of sexual assault in the past.” “
The store said that “more than 250 people have been negotiating with Harrods to reach an agreement directly with the corporation” since the BBC launched a documentary on September 19 last year in which five people woman on behalf of Al-Fayed that they raped or sexually assaulted them.
In general, the attacks attributed to Mohamed Al-Fayed took place at the Harrods store, as well as at the Ritz Hotel, and at Fulham Football Club over a period of around thirty years between 1979 and 2013, according to of the police.
The police announced on Saturday that they had received calls from “60 people who shared their experiences” since the documentary was shown. She said she received 21 complaints between 2005 and 2023, none of which were prosecuted.
The “Justice for Harrods Survivors” team, made up of lawyers, told AFP on October 11 that it now represents 116 women from around the world, some of whom were minors when who were subjected to the attacks that Al-Fayed is accused of.
2024-10-22 16:53:00
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