Harrods executive ‘was Mohamed Fayed's female fixer'

Telegraph

02-04-2025

A female former Harrods executive has been named as an alleged enabler to Mohamed Fayed.
Kelly Walker-Duncalf, who worked for the Egyptian billionaire in the late 1990s and 2000s, allegedly helped identify and supply young women for him to attack.
The 48-year-old, who now lives in Jersey, is also accused of helping to cover up the systematic abuse and of even threatening the victims to ensure their silence.
Ms Walker-Duncalf, who now runs a recruitment firm, was named by a number of women who spoke to Channel 4's Dispatches programme.
The Telegraph can also reveal that she was arrested alongside Fayed in 2015, after a young woman came forward to allege she had been groomed by her and then raped by the Harrods owner two years earlier.
The Crown Prosecution Service considered bringing charges against the pair but concluded there was not a realistic prospect of conviction at the time.
However, following fresh revelations against Fayed after his death, Scotland Yard has confirmed it is now investigating the role of at least five potential enablers who helped facilitate the abuse.
One woman who claimed she had been 'procured' by Ms Kelly-Duncalf in the mid-2000s told The Telegraph how the glamorous blonde executive would visit pubs in Surrey looking for 'pretty young girls' and luring them with the promise of a job at Harrods.
She would allegedly befriend the women by boasting of her wealth before asking if they would like to meet her 'boss', the billionaire Egyptian businessman.
She would then arrange a date to meet the girls and, after picking them up in a white Range Rover, would drop them off at Fayed's Park Lane penthouse apartment.
At least four women in Surrey were approached in this way around 2011, The Telegraph understands.
Ms Walker-Duncalf joined Harrods in 1997 working on the shop floor but she rose up the ranks to become head of store approvals in 2004.
She remained at Harrods in that position until 2013, three years after Fayed sold the store and left.
Victims who spoke to the Channel 4 documentary claimed she would scour the store for young girls but would also search in London bars, even approaching some women on the street.
One woman who spoke to Dispatches, Francesca, described how she had been introduced to Ms Walker-Duncalf at a restaurant in London when she was 20 in 2013, after Fayed had left Harrods.
She said Ms Walker-Duncalf took her to meet the billionaire at his Park Lane residence, promising that he could help with her career.
Francesca alleged she was raped by Fayed while Ms Walker-Duncalf waited in a sitting room downstairs.
She also claimed Ms Walker-Duncalf then put her in a cab home and suggested they have brunch the next day.
Another woman, Rebecca, described how she was introduced to Fayed by the blonde executive two weeks after starting work at Harrods, on the pretext that she had won a gift voucher for good work.
She claimed he forcibly kissed her before giving her £800 and sending her on an errand to his apartment where he then raped her.
Rebecca claimed when she told Ms Walker-Duncalf what had happened she reacted with threats.
She told Channel 4: 'She responded almost with anger and told me that 'What am I going to do about it? He's one of the you know richest men in the United Kingdom. No one will believe you'. You know, at one point she mentioned that. 'Remember that we know where you live.''
She added: 'I've had 19 years to think about it. She knew exactly what she was doing. From the second I met her to when I told her, she facilitated the entire process.'
'Thought of someone else'
Another woman, called Claire, explained that she had been recruited by Ms Walker-Duncalf at the age of 19 and was taken on a trip with Fayed on his yacht to Saint-Tropez where he attempted to rape her.
She said when she returned to London and described what had happened, Ms Walker-Duncalf allegedly told her she should have 'closed her eyes, thought of someone else and gone through with it'.
Eleanor Higgs, who was a menswear buyer at Harrods and is a former friend of Ms Walker-Duncalf described how she had an 'untouchable' position within Harrods and would hand business cards out to teenage girls in bars and restaurants.
Dean Armstrong KC who is acting on behalf of a large number of Fayed's victims said: 'In respect of our survivors, when they talk of the role of an enabler, the name that comes up as someone who was facilitating the introductions, putting them into a position where abuse could take place, was Kelly Walker-Duncalf, her name came up, at least 50 per cent of the time.'
More than 100 women have now come forward to police claiming to have been raped or sexually assaulted by Fayed, with offences dating back to the 1970s.
While Fayed died in August 2023, detectives have confirmed they are currently investigating at least five people on suspicion of assisting his offending.
A lawyer for Ms Walker-Duncalf told Dispatches that she did not, at any stage, 'facilitate' or 'enable' any of Fayed's crimes.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'We continue to support all victims and we urge anyone with information, whether they were directly affected by Mohamed Fayed's actions or aware of others who may have been involved, or committed offences, to come forward.'