‘His palms have been in every single place’ – ladies accuse surviving Fayed brother of sexual attack

3 former Harrods workers have accused Mohamed Al Fayed’s handiest surviving brother of sexually assaulting them whilst they have been operating for the dept retailer.

Talking publicly for the primary time, the ladies say Ali Fayed, 82, assaulted them within the Nineties when he and his brothers, Mohamed and Salah, owned and ran Harrods.

A spokesperson for Mr Fayed, who lives in the USA, mentioned the businessman “might not be scapegoated” and he “unequivocally denies any and the entire allegations of wrongdoing” and that “the incidents merely by no means happened”.

Caution: This tale accommodates descriptions of sexual violence

The alleged sexual attacks took place in London, Scotland, Switzerland and america. One of the crucial ladies, a former internal fashion designer for Harrods, says one attack took place on a piece travel whilst she was once staying with Ali Fayed and his circle of relatives at their former house in Connecticut.

“His palms have been in every single place,” she says, and he stopped as a result of “one in every of his little boys began calling for him”.

All 3 ladies say previous to Ali Fayed’s alleged attacks, they’d additionally been sexually abused by way of his older brother. Police say 111 ladies have now made allegations towards Mohamed Al Fayed, who added the Arabic “Al” prefix to his surname someday within the Nineteen Seventies.

One of the crucial ladies, Amy, has instructed the BBC she needs “a proof” from Ali Fayed, and an “working out of what was once occurring that may assist [her] step ahead and start therapeutic”.

All 3 say they did not really feel ready to talk out on the time.

“That is my probability to after all get up for myself. I am not going to be that scared 24-year-old who does not know what to do,” says Frances – who, like Amy, has waived her proper to anonymity.

Frances took a task operating for Harrods within the retailer’s internal design studio in 1989.

It wasn’t lengthy sooner than Mohamed Al Fayed started to bully and sexually abuse her, she says. Frances says she remembers him frequently looking to snatch her breasts and grope her whilst at paintings, or subjecting her to “foul” verbal tirades.

In spite of now not having a lot revel in, Frances says she was once tasked with renovating Mohamed Al Fayed’s sprawling Scottish Balnagown Property, together with a farmhouse belonging to his more youthful brother, Ali.

Frances describes Ali Fayed’s manner as calmer than that of Mohamed.

“I feel for a second I believed possibly he could be kinder to me,” she says. “However he wasn’t.”

Ali Fayed, like Mohamed, additionally had a personal workplace and personal condo in 60 Park Lane in central London.

It was once in Ali’s workplace the place Frances says his sexual abuse began with him “looking to kiss” her, adopted by way of him “groping” and “molesting” her.

She says each the Fayed brothers would frequently give her items. “With Mohamed, it could continuously be wads of money, Ali would give jewelry or garments. It could be a see-saw between abusive behaviour then reward for my paintings and those lavish pieces.”

The abuse escalated in 1992, she says, when she flew to Connecticut to speak about internal design plans with Ali Fayed’s spouse.

“It was once this large personal area and it was once adorned in an English nation area taste. I do not believe I would ever observed the rest adore it in my lifestyles,” says Frances.

“I take note his spouse taking me into this picture-perfect American wealthy the city.”

Frances says she was once staying in a visitor room on the circle of relatives’s area when Ali Fayed instructed her to get modified for dinner one night time.

“I used to be in the toilet and were given undressed. After I got here out in my undies, he [Ali] was once simply status there within the room. I hadn’t heard him are available in or knock.”

Frances says Ali Fayed were given her at the mattress and attempted to get on best of her. His palms have been “within my bra, within my pants. I knew what his purpose was once”.

In step with Frances the alleged assault stopped when one in every of Ali’s youngsters known as out for him. Afterwards, she says she sat at the mattress, “frozen”.

A spokesperson for Ali Fayed mentioned the businessman “isn’t a culprit” and can “robustly protect himself towards those unsubstantiated claims”.

When Frances returned to paintings in London, she says Mohamed Al Fayed “exploded” and began “aggressively spitting abusive phrases” as a result of he it seems that believed she and Ali had had intercourse .

She says he instructed her: “I am performed with you… cross be with my brother.”

“From that time, I would nonetheless see Mohamed, and he’d nonetheless name me each and every title underneath the solar, however he did not in truth bodily abuse me,” says Frances.

“Now I used to be in worry of 2 of the house owners and I knew if I spoke out it could worsen. I may well be threatened, I may well be fired. I simply felt I needed to stay on going and, someday, this horror would move.”

Frances says Ali Fayed sexually assaulted her once more later that yr on a travel to Balnagown, the place she was once including the completing internal touches to his farmhouse.

Ali known as her into his personal workplace, she says, then dragged her onto his lap and began kissing her neck and touching her breasts as he spun round in his chair.

She says she may really feel he was once aroused thru his trousers.

“I take note him guffawing,” remembers Frances, who says she in the end controlled to break away and run out of the room. “Laughter is supposed to be great. It wasn’t. I left him there simply guffawing at me.”

Ali Fayed would continuously attempt to sexually contact her after they met, she says, “all the time guffawing and joking and making out it was once a laugh”.

The next yr, Frances says she was once fired for being in a dating with any other worker, one thing she says Mohamed Al Fayed forbade amongst body of workers. Harrods later settled a case she introduced for unfair dismissal.

Frances describes her time after leaving Harrods as “going underground and closing myself down”. She struggled to paintings and consider other folks and in the end moved away. She says Mohamed and Ali Fayed “took away” her self belief and dignity.

“To at the moment I endure with horrible nervousness and panic assaults and I do not like other folks in my house,” she says.

Mohamed Al Fayed and his more youthful brothers purchased Harrods in 1985. Whilst Mohamed was once the chairman, working day by day operations of the luxurious division retailer, Ali Fayed was once a director and likewise helped oversee the Space of Fraser team, which they owned within the early Nineties.

The brand new claims level to the “breadth of abuse” by way of Mohamed Al Fayed and “lift critical allegations” towards his brother Ali, Harrods instructed the BBC in a commentary.

“Lets now not most likely discuss on behalf of somebody who can, and will have to, reply to those allegations immediately,” it added.

The shop, which got here underneath new possession in 2010, mentioned it was hoping survivors have been taking a look at “each and every suitable street to them of their pursuit of justice, whether or not that be Harrods, the police or the Fayed circle of relatives and property”.

Ali Fayed, who was once granted British citizenship in 1999, co-owns luxurious British shirtmaker Turnbull and Asser along with his sons – however resigned as director on 8 December 2024, 10 days after those allegations have been put to him by way of the BBC.

All 3 ladies alleging abuse by way of Ali Fayed to start with spoke to filmmaker Keaton Stone, who has been investigating Mohamed Al Fayed since 2018 and whose paintings knowledgeable the BBC’s contemporary documentary and podcast about Mohamed’s predatory behaviour.

Mohamed Al Fayed by no means confronted fees whilst he was once alive, however the ladies consider his brother Ali will have to now be investigated by way of police.

“Whether or not any fees could be introduced, I do not know, however I consider he will have to be investigated for what he did,” says Amy.

She labored as a private assistant to Mohamed Al Fayed for just about 3 years, and says he sexually abused her all over her time at Harrods. The abuse escalated, Amy says, when Mohamed let himself into her room on a piece travel to Paris and attempted to rape her.

She says she “continued” the abuse, considering “that was once simply what being a tender lady supposed, it was once a danger of the place of business”.

Amy says she recollects Ali Fayed getting into Mohamed’s Park Lane workplace – and likewise taking telephone calls from him. “He gave me the nickname ‘Amy talking’ which he idea was once hilarious,” she remembers. “He would snicker when he spoke to me.”

A yr or two into the process, Amy says Mohamed instructed her to visit Switzerland with Ali to assist with some non-public assistant tasks like submitting and bureaucracy.

The pair travelled in combination on a Harrods personal jet, she says, and have been pushed to the upmarket lodge of Gstaad, the place the Fayed circle of relatives owned a ski chalet.

“When we were given to the chalet, with the exception of the aged housekeeper, it was once myself and Ali on my own for 3 days. It was once atypical,” says Amy. “No efforts have been made to even create one thing for me to do.”

The travel was once taken out of season and Amy says Ali Fayed gave the impression bored. He steered they cross to the native public swimming pool, she says, and after they were given there it was once abandoned.

“That is when Ali’s manner modified and he turned into giddy,” says Amy.

“He pulled me in underneath the water, and groped and fondled me, making me really feel very, very uncomfortable – very a lot trapped. I used to be terrified considering how am I going to get out of this.”

Amy says Ali Fayed laughed as he “groped” her, sooner than she controlled to break away of his clutches.

After the alleged attack, Amy says they each returned to the chalet and he or she was once left on my own for the remainder of the night time, feeling remoted and afraid.

Like the opposite two ladies, Amy did not inform any individual concerning the alleged abuse by way of both of the brothers.

Amy says she did not need to disappointed her family members and did not essentially really feel other folks would consider her.

“Through now not announcing the rest, I feel it is a coping method, to only put it away,” she provides.

Amy went again to paintings after the alleged attack happened in Gstaad, however in the end resigned.

She says she “escaped and ran away” to paintings out of the country.

“I sought after to only take away myself from all of it”, she says, however “the trauma” lived together with her.

“To at the moment, in sure social eventualities, I do not need to be spotted, I attempt to keep invisible,” she says.

Ali Fayed denies the entire allegations of wrongdoing – mentioned his spokesperson – and “won’t permit false accusations to move unchallenged”.

A 3rd lady, who we’re calling Laura, instructed us she remembers Mohamed Al Fayed summoning her to his workplace and telling her “with a smirk on his face” that his brother Ali sought after to look her.

“I commit it to memory vividly as a result of I had no comprehension of who Ali was once, I would by no means even observed him,” she says. “I do not understand how I used to be noticed or ‘decided on’ for him.”

Laura were operating immediately for Mohamed Al Fayed in Harrods’ HR division and says his sexual harassment against her had turn out to be not unusual, escalating to 2 critical sexual attacks.

Laura says Mohamed despatched her to their workplace development in Park Lane one night time, but if she arrived there was once no paintings to be performed. She says she was once despatched thru to Ali Fayed’s condo the place he was once ready. Laura says he instructed her they might be having dinner, after which introduced her with a bottle of wine from the yr she was once born and a necklace.

“I puzzled how he knew issues about me,” she says.

By myself in his condo, Laura says Ali Fayed ordered her thru to the bed room the place she says she was once subjected to a significant sexual attack. She says she felt “numbed with worry” and needed to do no matter she was once instructed with a purpose to “get out of there”.

“Afterwards he simply instructed me I may cross.”

Laura says she by no means noticed Ali Fayed once more however saved the necklace from that evening and it has just lately been valued at £6,500.

The abuse at Harrods “took its toll” says Laura – even after she left the shop. She bottled all of it up for 25 years, she says, and nonetheless hasn’t instructed a few of her family members what she went thru.

All 3 ladies are pursuing civil felony motion towards Harrods thru Justice for Harrods Survivors.

“We applaud the bravery of the ladies who’ve spoken out on their allegations towards Ali Fayed and reiterate our dedication to securing justice and duty for all survivors,” says their barrister Maria Mulla.

“We repeat, no stone can be left unturned in pursuit of this purpose.”

The BBC spoke to a few different ladies who mentioned they’d been both raped, sexually assaulted or trafficked by way of the opposite Fayed brother, Salah, who died of pancreatic most cancers in 2010.

The ladies who accuse Ali Fayed query what the 3 brothers knew about every different’s behaviour.

“Having a look again now, possibly they discovered it a laugh to look how some distance the bounds have been with us between the brothers,” says Amy. “Possibly there was once pageant. I truly do not know, however I do really feel it was once all a laugh for them.”

Ali Fayed’s spokesperson says he “unequivocally denies any and all allegations of wrongdoing. The alleged incidents merely by no means came about. Mr Fayed isn’t a culprit and might not be scapegoated. He’s going to robustly protect himself towards those unsubstantiated claims and won’t permit false accusations to move unchallenged.”

It’s understood the Met Police has now not recorded any allegations of sexual offending towards Ali Fayed.

A Met spokesperson instructed the BBC that the police drive recommended “any individual with data, whether or not they have been immediately suffering from Mohamed Al Fayed’s movements or conscious about others who could have been concerned, or dedicated offences to come back ahead.

“Now we have specialist detectives who frequently care for delicate instances and may give survivors with get right of entry to to give a boost to services and products. Each document can be in moderation evaluated and recorded, and survivors are inspired to make use of the protected channels supplied to percentage their reports.”

• When you’ve got details about this tale that you just wish to percentage please get in contact. E mail MAFinvestigation@bbc.co.united kingdom. Please come with a touch quantity in case you are prepared to talk to a BBC journalist. You’ll additionally use the shape under.