Mohamed al Fayed: Former Fulham women’s captain Ronnie Gibbons claims she was sexually assaulted by club’s ex-owner | UK News

Former Fulham ladies’s captain Ronnie Gibbons has alleged she was twice sexually assaulted by the membership’s ex-owner Mohamed al Fayed.

Gibbons instructed The Athletic that the previous Harrods’ boss tried to “forcefully kiss” her and groped her at his division retailer in 2000, when she was 20.

She stated she was summoned to al Fayed’s workplace above the London division retailer twice on the pretext that she would talk about soccer to his youngsters, who weren’t there when she confirmed up.

Legal professionals representing Gibbons instructed the PA information company she had waived her anonymity, utilizing the interview to say she felt she couldn’t communicate out in regards to the abuse on the time for concern of jeopardising the way forward for the ladies’s workforce.

The previous footballer stated: “Talking my fact and at last telling my story will hopefully assist me heal and be rid of the disgrace, embarrassment and ache I’ve carried for years.”

Al Fayed owned Fulham FC between 1997 and 2013.

Gibbons captained the ladies’s workforce within the 2000-2001 season and stated she was “used”, including: “I simply felt an enormous accountability on my shoulders as a result of we would simply turned skilled.

“Every thing internally was screaming at me, ‘Ronnie, you could go away’, however I could not as a result of I might be in charge for all these ladies shedding their jobs and Fulham Girls happening the pan.

“I could not enable something to occur to me, however on the similar time, I could not simply run for the hills, which is what I wished to do.”

A press release from the attorneys representing the Justice for Harrods Survivors group stated they might have “extra to say” about Fulham subsequent week.

Their assertion stated: “What former Fulham captain Ronnie Gibbons was compelled to endure by the hands of Mohamed al Fayed is yet one more horrible instance of the monstrous abuse aided and abetted by the companies he owned.

“We salute our shopper’s bravery and are proud to advocate for Ronnie and others at Fulham who’re looking for justice. We’ll do no matter we will to raise the lid on abuse, regardless of the place it was perpetrated, or who it was perpetrated by, together with any enablers of al Fayed’s abhorrent behaviour.”

Learn extra:
Ex-flight attendant ‘fired for refusing to sleep with al Fayed’
Al Fayed’s son points assertion after claims towards late father
Al Fayed had ‘obsession with abusing ladies sexually’

A string of allegations towards al Fayed, who died final yr aged 94, have emerged because the launch of an investigation by the BBC.

The Metropolitan Police stated final week it had recorded 40 new allegations towards al Fayed, together with claims of rape and sexual assault. They’re along with the 21 ladies who went to the police between 2005 and 2023 with intercourse crime allegations towards the businessman.

Fulham stated on Friday they have been “profoundly troubled” after studying of the allegations made by Gibbons.

“She has our deepest empathy and help,” the Premier League membership added. “We proceed to emphasize our absolute condemnation of abuse in all varieties.

“We stay within the course of of building whether or not anybody on the membership is or would have been impacted by Mohamed al Fayed in any method as described in latest stories.”

Marco Silva, supervisor of the Fulham males’s workforce, stated the membership have been “not right here to cover”.

Talking at a information convention, he stated: “All of us can really feel it, we’re not right here to cover. It is unhappy to pay attention and now we have to be fully towards this. We’re speaking about one thing from 25 years in the past, not final yr, two years or three years but it surely’s unhappy anyway.

“We present empathy and if we will do something to assist as a soccer membership to help these concerned, now we have to do as a membership.”

Harrods reiterated its unique assertion concerning allegations towards al Fayed, telling Sky Information it was “totally appalled” by the claims of abuse.

The corporate stated: “These have been the actions of a person who was intent on abusing his energy wherever he operated and we condemn them within the strongest phrases. We additionally acknowledge that in this time his victims have been failed and for this we sincerely apologise.

“Whereas we can not undo the previous, now we have been decided to do the fitting factor as an organisation, pushed by the values we maintain as we speak, whereas guaranteeing that such behaviour can by no means be repeated sooner or later.”