Lawyers have urged Harrods to take responsibility following a string of sexual assault and rape claims made against its former boss Mohamed Al Fayed.
Barrister Dean Armstrong KC, who is representing some of the reported victims, told a press conference that the case “combines some of the most horrific elements of the cases involving Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein”, according to The Telegraph.
“I have many years of practice… I have never seen a case as horrific as this. We will say plainly, Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster,” he said.
At the press conference on Friday morning, Armstrong urged the department store to ensure the victims were properly compensated.
He acknowledged that there was a “systematic failure of corporate responsibly” and that failure is “on the shoulder of Harrods”.
“We are here to say publicly and to the world, or Harrods in front of the world, that it is time that they took responsibility, and it is time that they set matters right, and that is something they should do as soon as possible. They need to face up to accept the responsibility, that they have full culpability for the abuse that these women suffered,” Armstrong added.
“Today, we are going to set out our claim and how our claim shows an abject failure of corporate responsibility and a failure to provide a safe system of work.”
It comes after new allegations about Fayed, who died in August last year at the age of 94, were recently published by the BBC. Al Fayed sold Harrods and cut ties with the business in 2011.
More than 20 women claimed they were sexually assaulted by the billionaire, with five of those saying they were raped.
The women, who worked at Harrods from the late 1980s to the 2000s, said assaults were carried out at the company’s offices, in Fayed’s London apartment or on foreign trips, often at the Ritz hotel in Paris.
The BBC uncovered the allegations in a documentary and podcast called Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods. It claims Harrods not only failed to intervene but also helped cover up allegations against Fayed.
The current owners of Harrods said they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations and that his victims had been failed – for which the luxury department store sincerely apologised.
Responding to the BBC documentary, Harrods said: “We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed.
“These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise.
“The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.”
