Mohamed Al Fayed instructed me: ‘I’ll present you my pyramid’

Since the airing of the damning BBC documentary, lawyers representing those that were sexually assaulted by Mohamed Al-Fayed say they have had ‘over 150 enquiries’ from survivors and individuals with evidence against the former Harrods owner.

And now another alleged victim has bravely shared her story.

Margot McCuaig, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and novelist, said that ‘reading about this monster Al-Fayed reminds me of the time I met him’.

While presenting for Celtic TV at Fulham’s Craven Cottage, she alleges that the Egyptian businessman ‘put his hands on me’.

But the unsettling interaction continued. Ms McCuaig recalls Al Fayed saying: ‘Come to my penthouse and I will show you my pyramid.’

‘Absolute creep,’ Ms McCuaig said.

The filmmaker backed up her claims on X with a series of photos showing Al-Fayed touching her on the arm.

Ms McCuaig, who is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Stirling, looks uncomfortable as Radio 1 DJ David Hamilton watches on.

In the comments, Ms McCuaig said: ‘The guy in the background laughing at his crass comment shows how much the people around him enabled his behaviour.’

Five women allege they were raped by Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods who died last year at the age of 94, with dozens of others alleging sexual misconduct.

Barrister Bruce Drummond, part of the legal team representing 37 alleged victims in a civil case against Harrods, told BBC Radio 4 on Saturday: ‘This is the worst case of corporate sexual exploitation of young women that I have ever seen, and I think probably the world has ever seen.’

Mr Drummond added that his legal team was working ‘very closely’ with Gloria Allred, seen as a stalwart lawyer in women’s rights cases in the US, because the assaults are also alleged to have taken place in America.

He said some of the survivors come from Malaysia, Dubai, Canada and France, while the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which Al Fayed once owned, had also been the scene of alleged assaults.

Mr Drummond said on the programme: ‘It’s very much a global case, it’s not just the UK. It happened all over the world.’

Harrods said earlier this week in a statement: ‘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 Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.’

Harrods added that it had been a ‘priority’ to settle claims since ‘new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Fayed’.

In relation to that statement, Mr Drummond said it was ‘absolutely inconceivable’ the current owners of Harrods, the state of Qatar, could not have known about any ‘outstanding claims or liabilities’ against the business at the time of purchasing it in 2010.

Maria Mulla, another barrister in the legal team, told Times Radio that she had heard stories of women at Harrods ‘being put into cupboards’ when Al Fayed was walking round so ‘they wouldn’t be spotted’.

Their comments came as a former Harrods employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme of ‘enablers’ at the luxury store who were ‘as guilty as Al Fayed because they were not just passive onlookers’. 

The woman, referred to as Catherine in the programme, said she worked for Harrods in a ‘very junior role’ when she was 21.

She said: ‘They were actually helping to send girl after girl into a total nightmare.

‘I think that some individuals should be identified and that they should be questioned into their collusion.

‘It is essentially grooming, as the evidence suggests, and they should face justice.’

Catherine detailed for the first time her own experience with Al Fayed, which stirred up strong emotions for her, having heard the testimonies of others this week.

‘I mean it was quite visceral, my blood froze,’ she said when hearing their allegations.

Catherine recalled how she had been working one weekend at the luxury department store when she was contacted by Al Fayed’s personal assistant.

‘There were some musicians who had been playing in the HMV concession. The PA got in touch with me and said: “Look the boss really wants to see them, but he’s not going to be able to get down to the shop floor. Could you bring them up to his office to perform?”‘

Catherine said she ‘followed the instructions’, before being asked to briefly return downstairs with the band to the food hall and then returning upstairs to his office.

It was during this second moment in Al Fayed’s presence that she found herself becoming ‘uncomfortable’.

‘We went into a little room at the back, just him and I, and he said: ‘Come work in my office – one year here and you could be a buyer and work in fashion.’

‘I said that’s great, but I’m actually really happy in the department I’m working in, that’s what I’ve studied for at university.

‘He then held my hand and asked if I had a boyfriend. I politely laughed and said yes.

‘He said, ‘no you don’t have a boyfriend, I’m your boyfriend, you don’t need that donkey’, which was strange.

‘I was feeling more and more uncomfortable at this point. He then kissed me [on the forehead], got out his wallet and handed me £300 in cash.

‘He said “think about the job offer and come back next week.”

‘I shot out of there as quickly as I possibly could.’

Catherine continued: ‘I know others have said about this fatherly approach [he had], but I have boundaries. It was horrible and [he was] holding my hand, being in very close proximity, it was not normal.’

She claims she told all to her male line manager the following Monday, but ‘he just brushed it off’ and told her: ‘That’s just what he’s like.’

Catherine returned the cash Al Fayed had given her days previously and received ‘no response’ from him.

She said: ‘Looking back now, there were probably hundreds of women who made the same judgement call I did – and thank God because like me they will still carry a lighter, but permanent scar of that Harrods’ experience.’

Not long afterwards, Catherine handed in her notice and was called in to see Al Fayed again.

She believed this was ‘an extreme reaction given how junior and replaceable I was at that point.’

Reflecting years later however, she wondered whether Al Fayed was trying to discover if she would ‘speak out’ about what happened.

Sources within Harrods have said the business has accepted vicarious liability for the conduct of Al Fayed for the purpose of settling claims of alleged victims brought to its attention since 2023, reaching settlements with the vast majority.

In its statement on the BBC Documentary, Al-Fayed: Predator At Harrods, which aired on Thursday, Harrods said it was ‘a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed.

Al Fayed was the boss at Harrods between 1985 and 2010.

The store added that ‘since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved’.

Speaking to LBC, Dean Armstrong KC, who anticipates there will be more women coming forward with allegations, agreed that others had ‘enabled’ Al Fayed.

He said: ‘It was the facilities and resources of the body corporate that were being used to effectively enable this alleged behaviour.

‘That is something which must be addressed very urgently. There was a systematic failure of corporate responsibility.’

Armstrong added: ‘That systematic failure is on the shoulders of Harrods.’