The disgraced late Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed allegedly paid bribes to corrupt police officers who helped the tycoon persecute his staff.
The billionaire has been accused of raping five female employees and abusing more than 20 other women while he was in charge of the luxury London department store.
The Egyptian-born businessman – who died in London aged 94 in 2023 – was accused of coercing women into undergoing invasive medical exams, with the results sent directly to Al Fayed himself.
Behind closed doors, Harrods staff were allegedly cherry-picking attractive women to be his personal assistants and leading them to Al Fayed’s office like ‘lambs to the slaughter’.
Chilling claims say he monitored them with CCTV in their own homes, phone tapping and he threatened their families if they ever dared to speak out about the abuse.
Scotland Yard is now facing claims that the billionaire bribed corrupt police officers so they would help him persecute his staff, including a woman who is said to have rejected his advances.
Mohamed Al Fayed is accused of raping multiple women during his time as Harrods owner from 1984 to 2010
Gemma (pictured), who worked as his personal assistant between 2007 and 2009, says she was raped by Al Fayed during a work trip to Paris
Female Harrods workers as young as 15 who were hand-picked from the shop floor
According to The Guardian, a detective constable is accused of regularly taking cash bribes and was secretly given a mobile phone from Harrods to facilitate his illicit work.
A senior commander is alleged to have received large Harrods hampers ‘whenever he had been a particularly great help’.
Al Fayed was described as ‘ingenious’ in his use of the police to access confidential records on the National Computer, the newspaper reported.
Officers were said to be ‘on tap’, on the payroll and ‘tame’, giving out hampers to officers and being ‘enablers’ to Al Fayed’s alleged abuse.Â
Hermina da Silva, who was the nanny to his children, was allegedly dismissed in 1994 after rejecting Al Fayed and she was later arrested for allegations of theft after threatening a sexual harassment case, but was released without charge, and given a £12,000 payoff from Harrods.
The Guardian claims that an officer was told she made a ‘fuss’ and Al Fayed wanted ‘the problem sorted out’ – leading to an allegation that she had stolen from his brother.
It reported that the policeman who made the arrest ‘had been bribed in the past to trump up charges’ for those who went against Al Fayed. Â
Mohamed Al Fayed with the Queen in 1997. His business connections and charity work saw him mixing with high society despite his complaints about what he saw as establishment bias
The Crown featured the time Mohamed and Diana attended a polo match together in July 1987
The BBC programme claims that women were threatened and intimidated by Harrods’ then-director of security, John Macnamara – who died in 2019 aged 83 – to stop them speaking out.
According to the Guardian, Macnamara ‘would arrange that a number of chief superintendents would send their car round to receive their hamper’.
There were a number of attempts by reporters to expose Al Fayed before his death – notably by Vanity Fair in 1995 which published an article alleging racism, staff surveillance and sexual misconduct.
Al Fayed sued for libel but two years later after the magazine gathered further evidence of his sexual misconduct to use at trial he agreed to drop the case as long as all the further evidence was locked away. His settlement was negotiated by a senior Harrods executive.
Mohamed Al Fayed pictured with Princess Diana at the charity dinner for the Harefield Heart Unit held at Harrods in February 1996
Mohamed Al-Fayed Mohamed Al-Fayed out and about in Saint Tropez, in August 2009
A Met Police spokesman told the Guardian: ‘We are carrying out full reviews of all existing allegations reported to us about Al Fayed to ensure there are no new lines of enquiry based on new information which has emerged. This includes liaising with the Directorate of Professional Standards where appropriate.’
The BBC documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods – released just over a year after his death – spoke to female workers as young as 15 who were hand-picked from the shop floor by the sleazy billionaire to work as his personal assistants where they were groped, assaulted and raped.
Al Fayed – whose son Dodi was killed in a car crash alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 – has become known to a new generation through Netflix series of The Crown where he is presented as pleasant and gregarious. But his victims remember him as ‘vile’.
Security guards who protected Fayed would pass on stories of groping and non-consensual touching to other employees.
Tony Leeming, who was a manager from 1994 to 2004 said: ‘It was well known, everybody knew about it and it was laughed about. Looking back on it now it was pretty repellent and I was a part of it.
Mohamed Al Fayed attends the Issa show during London Fashion Week Spring Summer 2015 on September 15, 2014
A BBC documentary says the Egyptian-born businessman – who died in London aged 94 last August – was a serial sex attacker
‘I was aware of the abuse against women when I was on the shop floor. And I think if I knew, everybody knew. Anyone who says they didn’t are lying, I’m sorry.
‘It was known around the whole company.’
The Egyptian-born tycoon – who died last August aged 94 – ran Harrods for 25 years from 1985 to 2010.
More than 20 former employees from that era came forward to tell the BBC Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them in Harrods’ offices, in his Park Lane apartment, at the Ritz hotel in Paris, which he also owned, or his nearby Villa Windsor property.
Five women alleged they had been raped by Al Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94.
At a press conference, a legal team involved in the investigation is expected to share more details about a claim against the luxury department store for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees.
After the publication of the investigation, a woman who the BBC is calling Melanie came forward to say she had been subjected to a ‘sickening’ sexual assault by the Egyptian billionaire.
The woman worked at Harrods prior to 2010, and met Mr Al Fayed at work meetings on two occasions, before being summoned to his apartment, it was reported.
Melanie, who described the businessman as a ‘sleazebag’ and ‘slimy’, said: ‘He sat down next to me… He had asked that I return a couple of weeks later to stay at the apartments the night before the Harrods sale.
Mr Al Fayed (right) with Prince Charles (with his back to camera) and Diana during a Harrods-sponsored polo match in 1987
‘And he would not really let me leave until I agreed to that.
‘As I stood to leave, that’s when he put his hands on my breast and said some pretty disgusting things. And I was in complete shock. I just turned around and walked out.’
Melanie decided to go to the police in 2023, and said she was later told Scotland Yard planned to arrest Al Fayed that year.
But he was too unwell to be questioned, and died in August 2023, the BBC reported.
Following the new allegations, Harrods’ current owners said they stood by a statement which said they were ‘utterly appalled’ by the allegations of abuse.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
To protect his image, Fayed fostered a culture of fear among workers at the posh Knightsbridge department store, with women scared to talk to each other believing their phones were tapped and they were being constantly watched by hidden cameras.
The ex-deputy director of security, Eamon Coyle, confirmed the shop was bugged and it was his job to listen to the tapes of recorded calls.
He said: ‘He bugged everybody that he wanted to bug.’
Fayed also used his immense wealth and power and a network of people around him who helped keep his criminality under wraps.
They included shamed PR guru Max Clifford, also a sex offender who died in jail.
Secretly recorded footage shows Clifford boasting about protecting his employer, who he called ‘a randy old sod’.
When victims did come forward he used cash payoffs and legally-binding non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to force their silence.
A Harrods spokesperson said: ‘We want to offer our assistance with any new or existing inquiries the Met Police receive in relation to accusations regarding the actions of Fayed. Harrods is in direct communication with the Metropolitan Police to ensure we are offering our assistance with any of their relevant inquiries.’
