AMANDA PLATELL: Fayed sufferer whose story is seared on my thoughts for ever

The news that 37 women have come forward claiming the late owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, raped or sexually abused them struck me like a thunderbolt.

For it took me back to the shocking moment some decades ago when a young man came into my office in tears saying Al Fayed had repeatedly raped his teenage sister. I was a newspaper executive. He was on my team and pleading for my help.

He said his beautiful sister, who was disabled, had been fast-tracked on a Harrods programme working on the shop floor.

Like so many other impressionable girls, she was flattered at being singled out for Al Fayed’s attention and too young to realise when he gave her expensive jewellery and hundreds of pounds that he was grooming her.

Al Fayed persuaded her to move from her East End flat into his Mayfair apartment block, his den for raping employees.

The first night she stayed there, he appeared through adjoining doors wearing an open towelling robe. He forced himself on her, at the same moment saying he would pay for a £30,000 operation to cure her disability.

Her brother told me his sister was torn desperately, hoping that his promises were true. Of course it was all lies, used to manipulate her as he continued to rape her.

How could anyone prey on a vulnerable girl’s hopes and fears in such a cruel way? We eventually helped her to leave Al Fayed’s clutches. She was reunited with her family who gave her ­sanctuary when she was damaged beyond comprehension.

I’ve never forgotten her and her story was foremost in my mind this week as those women spoke up with their own stories about Al Fayed. Now she’s seared on my mind – just one tragic victim who fell for the lies of a monster.

Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch says working for McDonald’s as a teenager ‘made me working class’. Ridiculous! Kemi’s the daughter of a GP and her mother’s a professor – she’ll never be working class!

Elon Musk rows into the Huw Edwards scandal, accusing Britain of having ‘misplaced priorities’ and liking a tweet by Swedish journalist Peter Imanuelsen: ‘A BBC presenter just avoided jail time for buying paedophile images, while Britain sent a man to 38 months prison for a satirical post on X about the riots. WHAT’S HAPPENING???’ 

The man’s got a point – I’m as bewildered as he is. 

Westminster wars 

• Keir Starmer is top of the freebie grabbers. He pocketed £107,145 of gifts while earning £128,291 as an MP and leader of the Opposition. Even The Guardian is appalled at the man who pledged: ‘Labour will end the chaos of sleaze.’ It concludes: ‘Labour is out- Torying the Tories.’

• Has any Foreign Secretary ever had such idiotically bad timing? David Lammy suspended 30 arms exports licences to Israel just days after Hamas executed six hostages. Then he announced that global warming is a more urgent threat than terrorism – just before the mobiles and walkie-talkies of terrorist group Hezbollah exploded en masse and Israel launched a series of missile strikes that could pitch the world into war.

One thing’s for sure amid Wardrobegate. Pictures of Starmer’s Chief of Staff Sue Gray turning up for work in her PJs proves at least she hasn’t got her snout in the free frocks trough.

Afghan hell no longer ours

Afghan women beseech the West for help as the Taliban decrees they can’t appear in public without a man, are banned from speaking loudly and forced to cover their entire bodies. Heartbreaking. 

But given the UK spent £8.4 billion and the lives of hundreds of soldiers trying to save the country we must say… it’s not our problem.

Despite claims that he fears for his life if he even enters Britain, Prince Harry will return here later this month to attend the WellChild Awards in London, one of the few British charities he’s still associated with.

Palace sources say it is unlikely he will meet up with his father King Charles as he and Queen Camilla will be mostly staying in Scotland until October.

But then – given that Harry vilified them in his memoir Spare –there’s a sense that Charles hasn’t exactly exuded a sense of wellbeing for his own petulant child.

Sports presenter Gabby Logan says her rugby playing son Reuben, 19, is deeply embarrassed by her podcast, The Mid Point, discussing her sex life after husband Kenny was diagnosed with prostate cancer. 

It makes him cringe – chats about penis pumps and sex for the first time after post-operative surgery should not be shared on a podcast, he says. 

I agree. Gabby is already worth £4million, so why does she feel the need to drop-kick her children into this excruciating publicity?

Love of sisters saved his life too

In his book Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, which was serialised in the Mail, the Princess of Wales’s brother James Middleton talks of his unbearable thoughts of suicide.

Having read his book I’d suggest it wasn’t the dog who saved him but the persistent love of Kate and their sister Pippa who phoned him 24/7 demanding they see him when he was in his darkest days. Dogs are wonderful, but they’re not a patch on loving siblings.

The unknown – and unfunny – former comedian Robin Ince, now a Lefty TV presenter, accuses Ricky Gervais of bullying him when they were on tour together 20 years ago and says he came out in a red rash.

I know the feeling. Every time I see Ricky on stage I come all over red-faced after collapsing with laughter.

Bruised toe & ego 

After the Strictly scandal triggered by actress Amanda Abbington claiming her dance partner Giovanni Pernice caused her a bruised toe and PTSD, the first episode of the show’s 20th anniversary special tanked, losing more than a million viewers.

Meanwhile, she has been performing to a half-empty north London theatre. As for Gio, he’s about to star before millions of viewers in ­Italy’s version of Strictly, Dancing With The Stars. Maybe Amanda hasn’t just got a bruised toe – but a ­shattered ego.