Mohamed Al-Fayed ‘groped teenage assistant in entrance of his kids’
A former personal assistant of Mohamed Al-Fayed has accused the disgraced businessman of groping her in front of his three children when she was only 19.
Catherine first met the Harrods owner in 1990 during an interview for the role in his office inside the luxury department store and was immediately hired on the spot.
While she thought she had landed her ‘dream job’, it soon turned into a nightmare as after just a few months into the role, when she was invited to Al-Fayed’s country mansion in Oxted, Surrey.
But while she was there, Catherine claims he ‘put his hand right up my skirt and sort of groped me’, all while three of his children were in the room.
Catherine, who is now in her early 50s, is still haunted by her harrowing experience with ‘monster’ Al-Fayed, along with dozens of other women who have accused the late billionaire of sexual assault and, in some cases, rape.
While Al-Fayed did not face justice for his alleged crimes, after his death last year at the age of 94, it has emerged that prosecutors they failed twice to bring charges against him while he was alive.
Mohamed Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, is accused of raping and assaulting multiple women during his time as Harrods owner from 1985 to 2010
The late former boss of Harrods has been accused of dozens of sex attacks by at least 20 women who worked at the prestigious Knightsbridge department store
A former personal assistant of Al-Fayed has accused the disgraced businessman of groping her in front of his three children at his Surrey mansion (pictured) when she was only 19
Al-Fayed acquired Harrods from House of Frasier in 1985 at a cost of £615million and retained ownership until 2010, when he sold the department store to Qatar Holdings for £1.5billion.
Catherine said she was hired as his personal assistant at the department store in 1990, when she was 19-years-old.
Within four or five months of working there, she was invited to Al-Fayed’s country mansion in Oxted to help his daughter Camilla with piano lessons.
She told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘When I got there he introduced me to his children and his wife. He made you feel that if you worked for him, you were like family.’
Catherine said he led her into a huge playroom with the piano inside as well as a children’s ball pit.
‘Out of nowhere he picked me up, put his hand right up my skirt and sort of groped, and threw me in,’ she said. ‘I remember being submerged and resurfacing and all of them were laughing at me.’
Catherine recalled the sexual assault took place in front of three of Al-Fayed’s children and just after his wife had left the room.
Later that night, he again tried to assault her, but luckily she was able to fend him off before barricading her room with a chest of drawers, Catherine said.
It was just a few months later after the alleged incident that Catherine was sacked from her role after pushing Al-Fayed away when ‘he tried to go up my blouse’.
Late billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed has been described as ‘a monster’ amid claims he raped multiple women working for him at Harrods
Al Fayed unveils a memorial to his son Dodi and Britain’s Diana Princess of Wales at Harrods in London in 2005
Lawyers representing women claiming they were sexually assaulted by Al Fayed say they have ‘had over 150 new enquiries’ since the airing of a damning BBC documentary earlier this week.
Five women allege they were raped by Al Fayed, with dozens of others alleging sexual misconduct.
The new enquiries relate to a ‘mix of survivors and individuals with evidence about Al Fayed’.
The Crown Prosecution Service has admitted that it was passed evidence from police about Al-Fayed’s alleged crimes but decided not to bring charges against him, according to The Sunday Times.
A CPS spokeswoman told the paper: ‘We reviewed files of evidence presented by the police in 2009 and 2015.
‘To bring a prosecution the CPS must be confident there is a realistic prospect of conviction.
‘In each instance our prosecutors looked carefully at the evidence and concluded this was not the case.’
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.’
Al Fayed has been accused of raping five women during his 25-year tenure at the luxury retail outlet (pictured), with at least 15 other women saying they were sexually assaulted by him
Some of Fayed’s assaults are said to have been carried out at his Park Lane property in London
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.
He added: ‘If you buy a company then you take with it the responsibilities of that company.’
