‘I’m petrified of someone that’s no longer alive’, says Mohamed Al Fayed accuser

Greater than 20 feminine former staff have spoken to the BBC as a part of a particular investigation, coming ahead with allegations of assault and bodily violence at properties in London and Paris.

5 girls alleged they’d been raped by Mr Al Fayed, who died final 12 months on the age of 94, the broadcaster reported.

Harrods’ present homeowners mentioned they’re “completely appalled” by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by the late billionaire, including: “As a enterprise, we failed our staff who had been his victims and for this, we sincerely apologise.”

Gemma, who was one in every of Mr Al Fayed’s private assistants between 2007 and 2009 and labored for the workplace of his charitable basis, advised BBC Radio 4’s As we speak programme that she “would have been too frightened” to get justice whereas the tycoon was alive.

“Even now, this previous couple of weeks, having to relive all these moments has introduced again that worry,” she mentioned.

“And I’m now strolling round feeling petrified of someone that’s lifeless as a result of he simply had that energy over you and it’s mad that even right now I’m petrified of somebody that’s not alive.”

Gemma mentioned she was “required” to have gynaecological assessments to get the job and believes, trying again, that the assessments had been checking for sexually transmitted infections.

She claimed Mr Al Fayed began sexually harassing her “instantly” after she began, by making sexual remarks and groping her.

She advised the As we speak programme that Mr Al Fayed tried to come back into her room on a number of work journeys and spoke of locking herself in rooms and loos and ignoring him when he would come to her door.

She alleged that Mr Al Fayed raped her throughout a visit to Paris.

Gemma mentioned he directed her to wash herself afterwards, including: “Wanting again now I’m older, extra mature, I realise that that was most likely to cowl up something, any sort of proof, something that will have left his hint on me.”

She mentioned she felt “terrified” afterwards.

“In Paris, there have been safety guards patrolling the home, there have been safety guards exterior the home, we had been locked in a gated property, we’d been escorted there that day by the police, so I felt like I couldn’t even go to the police, even when I may make my means out of the property,” she advised Radio 4.

“I couldn’t even ponder leaving the nation as a result of he had my passport, so my solely strategy to depart was with him again on that personal jet again to London.”

She mentioned getting again to London was “much more terrifying” as a result of she felt she had nobody to show to, explaining that she and her colleagues had been beneath “surveillance” and that there was a “sturdy tradition of don’t discuss something regarding him”.

Gemma mentioned going to the police again in London “simply wasn’t an possibility”, including: “He felt like such a robust man with a lot cash and so {many professional} individuals round him that had been facilitating all the things he did.

“It simply felt like little previous me from a small city exterior of London is rarely going to face an opportunity in opposition to him, and even when I went to the police, what would they do? It’s my phrase in opposition to his at that time.”

The programme heard she obtained herself signed off from work with stress inside weeks of getting back from Paris.

Gemma mentioned that whereas she was on sick depart, Mr Al Fayed would ring her and threatened to ship his safety group to take her again to London.

She ultimately sought assist from a lawyer to assist her depart the corporate correctly, she mentioned.

Gemma advised of getting to destroy recordings she had product of Mr Al Fayed sexually harassing her.

“The HR division throughout my leaving course of had mentioned that in an effort to depart quietly and rapidly, they wanted me to destroy all of my proof,” she advised the As we speak programme.

“They gave me a settlement, they made me shred my proof and I needed to signal an NDA to say I’d by no means talk about it.”

In a press release, Harrods mentioned: “The Harrods of right now is a really completely different organisation to the one owned and managed by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it’s one which seeks to place the welfare of our staff on the coronary heart of all the things we do.

“This is the reason, since new info got here to gentle in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our precedence to settle claims within the quickest means attainable, avoiding prolonged authorized proceedings for the ladies concerned.

“This course of continues to be obtainable for any present or former Harrods staff.”

Mr Al Fayed was born within the Egyptian metropolis of Alexandria and got here to London within the Nineteen Sixties and set about constructing a enterprise empire.

He took management of Harrods in 1985 and later expanded his enterprise pursuits to incorporate the Paris Ritz and Fulham Soccer Membership.

The tycoon was not often out of the newspapers, along with his most public assault on the Home of Windsor and the Institution over the dying of his son and inheritor Dodi – alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, on this planet’s most well-known automobile crash.

He spent a decade after the lovers’ 1997 deaths in Paris’s Alma tunnel repeatedly claiming that they had been murdered in a plot by the safety providers and the Duke of Edinburgh.

However he was compelled to reluctantly concede defeat after a high-profile six-month inquest in 2007 and 2008.

The billionaire’s relationship with the royal household was depicted in season 5 of The Crown, the place Mr Al Fayed, performed by Salim Daw, was seen attending to know Diana.

Mr Al Fayed had beforehand been accused of sexually assaulting and groping a number of girls, however a 2015 police investigation didn’t result in any costs.

Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods airs on BBC Two at 9pm on Thursday night time and is out there on BBC iPlayer. The accompanying five-part season of the World of Secrets and techniques podcast, from the BBC World Service, is on BBC Sounds.