Mohamed Al Fayed - Predator at Harrods (and Fulham FC)

jojojo

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Mohamed Al Fayed - the former owner of Harrods and Fulham has been accused of multiple sexual assaults including rape charges, by multiple female Harrods employees. Unfortunately for criminal justice he died last year before he was ever brought in front of a court.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6x635wpjxo

The BBC aired a documentary (Predator at Harrods) about it this week it's on iPlayer at:
Panorama

He was reported to the police multiple times. He was reported to Harrods managers even more frequently but the solicitor acting for the women says "Harrods not only failed to intervene, but helped cover up abuse allegations."

He sued Vanity Fair for publishing allegations back in the 90s. ITV news and C4 have also tried to present the allegations before. It's the first time the victims have waived their anonymity to come forward as a group though - hence all the new details.

Fulham are asking their present and former employees to report any incidents that happened at the club to them or to the police.

This gives an idea of his reputation though:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c870d8ry859o

A former manager of Fulham's women's team says extra precautions were put in place to protect female players from the club’s late owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Gaute Haugenes, who managed the team from 2001 to 2003, told the BBC that members of staff became aware that the late billionaire "liked young, blonde girls".

He said that as a result players were not allowed to be left alone with Al Fayed, who owned the club for 16 years.
 
Think as a bare minimum he needs to apologize.
 
About 25 years ago I used to go out with a deaf girl who worked at harrods. Harrods paid for some better hearing aids for her but she had to go to Al Fayed’s office to collect them.
She knew what was going to happen and he basically assaulted her and said he could get her more than a hearing aid if she would do x, y, z.
Everyone who worked there knew what was going on, but nobody did anything about it.
This happened before I met her and she had other stories about what happened to her colleagues as well.
Sickening.
 
As always with rich, well-connected people, the story only comes out after they are dead.

Journalism used to be about taking on the powerful, now its about working for them. Its the root of pretty much all this country's issues, including the piss poor politicians that are pushed to the top by media billionaires.
 
Nogbadthebad said:
As always with rich, well-connected people, the story only comes out after they are dead.

Journalism used to be about taking on the powerful, now its about working for them. Its the root of pretty much all this country's issues, including the piss poor politicians that are pushed to the top by media billionaires.
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That's the question really. It's how do you take on someone as wealthy and well connected as him while he's still alive?

Vanity Fair tried and got litigated out of trying again. ITV tried and got blocked. C4 tried and got blocked. Between legal action against reporters and compensation, threats and NDAs used against staff he built his walls.

Never underestimate the role of shame (at becoming his target) compounded by a kind "everyone knew - so why didn't you?" culture that made victims feel stupid and complicit. Many opted for anonymity and a chance to walk away - especially when they knew they had nothing beyond their own account to take to the police. Reporters running stories based on anonymous sources even ones with multiple (credible to them) sources are on very unstable ground.

The police and CPS will have questions to answer as well.
 
Horrendous abuse of power.

Absolute travesty that he’ll never face justice, though hopefully those who knew about him and protected him will.
 
From the former captain of the Fulham women's team:


It gives an idea of just how effective Al Fayed was at controlling his victims and hiding in plain sight.
 
jojojo said:
From the former captain of the Fulham women's team:


It gives an idea of just how effective Al Fayed was at controlling his victims and hiding in plain sight.
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Horrible to read that. Feel sorry that none of them felt like they could come forward then. :(
 
SilentWitness said:
Horrible to read that. Feel sorry that none of them felt like they could come forward then. :(
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It's disgusting, isn't it? And then you don't have to stray too far on this very forum to find the prevailing attitude among what I would say is probably a significant minority of posters which shows you why survivors of these offences were/are afraid to come forward at the time of the offence.
 
That'sHernandez said:
It's disgusting, isn't it? And then you don't have to stray too far on this very forum to find the prevailing attitude among what I would say is probably a significant minority of posters which shows you why survivors of these offences were/are afraid to come forward at the time of the offence.
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Very, and then you read this.

Last week, the Met revealed that 40 women have approached the force since the film to accuse Al Fayed of sexual offences. The allegations cover a period between 1979 and 2013.

The Met has also admitted that 21 women approached the force before the BBC film.
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The CPS has now told the BBC that, in 2009, it made a charging decision on two allegations of sexual assault in relation to one female complainant.

Then, in 2015, it made a charging decision on one allegation of rape and an allegation of aiding and abetting rape by one female suspect. These allegations related to a different female complainant.

It means the Met did not pass full files of evidence to prosecutors on 19 of the women who approached them, nor did the two files it did pass contain complaints from other women whose evidence could have potentially provided corroboration.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8egz8gr8lo
 
That'sHernandez said:
It’s hard to tell whether it’s incompetence or institutional misogyny
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There’s a lot of institutional stuff with the met. This may or may not be that. People don’t seem to be aware that extremely wealthy and powerful people have to be green lit; police can’t just go after them, nor do the rules normal ranks in society follow apply to them. Whoever was in charge at the time needs to be looked at before lower ranking officers.
 
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