Mohamed Al-Fayed: BBC investigation: 65 women talk about being sexually harassed by Al-Fayed – BBC News Arabic

In the first allegation of abuse heard by the BBC, a woman says Al-Fayed assaulted her in Dubai in 1977, eight years before he bought Harrods, which helped make him a household name in the UK.

She describes how Al-Fayed used to stalk and threaten her personally, and women who worked at Harrods say that he later made frightening tactics through a team of security personnel.

Of the 65 women who contacted the BBC to share their accounts of abuse, 37 said they had worked at Harrods.

In response to questions from the BBC, Harrods says: “To date, there are over 200 people in the Harrods process to settle claims directly with the company. “

The BBC also spoke to women who did not work for Al-Fayed, who said they had been attacked.

One woman said she was working in a flower shop in London in the early 1980s, when a member of Al Fayed’s team called her a “moth”. She said she was 21 years old at the time, and was flown to the Ritz Hotel in Paris for an alleged job interview, where Al-Fayed sexually assaulted her.

The former BBC make-up artist also confirmed that she was sexually assaulted by Al-Fayed while working on an episode of The Dressing Show in 1989, in which the billionaire was interviewed at Villa Windsor, his home in Paris.

Warning: This story contains details that may be disturbing to some

Margot, her pseudonym, was 19 when she answered a job advert in The Lady magazine, in 1985, for a nanny and teacher in Surrey, submitting her application and photograph as was requested.

Having previously worked as a nanny, she remembers being awkward when asked at the end of the interview whether she “had a boyfriend or had ever had a boyfriend”. Margot told the BBC: “I said no, and the interviewer seemed relieved by my answer.

No one told her that the role would be with Al Fayed and his family, at their mansion in Barrow Green Court, Oxted, until she was offered the job. Her mother encouraged her to try it for a month.

“I remember being swept by a chauffeur-driven limousine through the stunning gates into Barrow Green Court and the long driveway leading to the brick mansion,” she says.

Inside, Margot says she was ushered into a small, dimly lit room with one bed, a desk and a phone inside.

“I quickly learned that I was afraid of the sound of the bell ringing and Al-Fayed calling me,” said Margot.

She says that’s when the sexual assaults started again.

“The job wasn’t there,” she told the BBC. “He didn’t need a nanny. He didn’t want a nanny.”

Margot says she only saw the children twice for five days and was not allowed to interact with them. Instead, every time Al-Fayed called her, she was sexually assaulted, in various places on the property, including the indoor pool, gardens and examination rooms, she said. .

“I felt trapped,” Margot told the BBC. ‘bottom, which can only be opened by order of Al-Fagaidi.”

She said “Al-Fayed entered her room early in the morning, got into her bed, and raped her. she didn’t understand why she was there,” but he refused and told her that the description The action “will become clearer over time.”

He told her to give him another 24 hours, and he would buy her a house and give her more money. She says he became angry when she told him again that she wanted to leave.

“I was held in Barrow Green courtyard, against my will, as a prisoner for several days and I still feel that I was very lucky to escape. “

She says she was finally allowed to leave, but when she went a member of the team threatened her to “keep quiet about her time here, or her life would be very difficult.”

Margot said: “When I look back, I think I was only hired as a sex partner or toy for Al-Fayed, so the questions I was asked in the interview – if she had a boyfriend – to to find out if I was a man. virgin.”

She says: “The events of that week have affected me ever since.

The BBC also heard accounts from other women, who said they were employed as nannies, cooks and maids, and who said they were abused in Al-Fayed’s private properties, these women also said when they arrived these, it was not likely that the works were not there for them and they believe that they were deceived under false sermons.

When news of the sexual assault allegations against Al Fayed broke, the memories that Sheena had tried to forget for 47 years came flooding back. She waived her right to anonymity to share her story.

She told the BBC: “I was hearing the dates but what happened to me was before that,” and she began to ask, “Am I the first?”

Sheena was 25 years old and working in a bank in Dubai when she first met Al-Fayed, after she moved there because of her husband’s construction work.

It turned out that his visits as a client became more regular and he began to ask about her personal life and professional history, before offering her an interview about a possible job together to him.

Sheena says that while she was sitting on the other side of his desk from him, he started walking around and then came to her “When I turned around, his hands were on my shoulders,” she said.

Sheena says “Al-Fayed sexually assaulted her, and when she tried to leave, he blocked the door. repent.”

Sheena confirms that Al-Fayed then continued to follow her, appearing at her workplace, in the supermarket, and at her social club, repeating his farewell words.

“The danger was there all the time,” she says.

Once he told her: “I warned you that you would regret it… Have you noticed that I am always there?”

Sheena says that this happened about 20 times, and sometimes he would follow her and grope again.

“I always prayed that someone else would see what was really happening, believing that if someone else saw what was happening, that it would be true and that someone would do something for her,” she said.

She says that he had such a terrible control over her that he seemed to disappear. Later, she found out that he had left Dubai and she felt like she could breathe again.

She did not tell her husband what had happened until 2015, when his health began to decline before his death.

“I told him because I knew he was nearing the end of his life, and I felt like he needed to know that, because that was the only secret I had kept from him ever,” she said.

Sheena says that what happened makes her angry now, and that her biggest regret is not revealing the matter before Al-Fayed died.