More women came forward last night to accuse former Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual harassment. The three new women, whose claims were broadcast last night on Channel 4 News, spoke out after a Dispatches documentary last December in which three other women made similar allegations.
Billionaire Mr Al-Fayed, 89, who owns the Paris Ritz Hotel and is a former owner of Fulham Football Club, was reported by Channel 4 News to have denied ‘false’ allegations made by a woman whose complaint to the police when she was a teenager was dropped.
Last night the complainant, identified as ‘Woman A’, told Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman she visited Harrods with her mother in 2007 when Mr Al-Fayed offered her a job when she was a teenager. She said: ‘It was so surreal.
My meetings would be often, once a week in his offices, upstairs in Harrods, top floor.’ She said the tycoon gave her £300 in £50 notes and showered her with gifts including perfume and a designer handbag.
After a few months, she said he came into the boardroom one day and tried to kiss her and make unwanted advances.
Woman A said she stopped eating and ran away from home, but eventually confided in her parents.
They took her to the police. After a thorough investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service decided the evidence was conflicting and not sufficiently reliable, and dropped the case. Mr Al-Fayed has always maintained his innocence.
Channel 4 News also spoke to ‘Woman B’, now in her 40s, who started working at Harrods a quarter of a century ago. She said Mr Al-Fayed made her feel uncomfortable during a business trip to his Ritz hotel in Paris.
She said: ‘We all went to have dinner in the restaurant…he made a few comments about sex and boyfriends and things.
‘He wanted to dance with each of us. I danced with him. I felt really uncomfortable.
‘He was kissing my face. He asked if I liked his kisses. He kept squeezing me and kissing my forehead, and even at one point he kissed my nose. And I remember feeling very uncomfortable and a bit frozen. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
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