How was Al Fayed able to get away with sick abuse for so long? Those who covered up for monster must be punished
FACT or fiction, it used to be the first thing you ever heard about Harrods: it's the luxury shop where you can get ANYTHING.
Turns out that also included being raped, forced into abortion, subjected to medical examinations, bullied, humiliated and ordered to crawl around the floor on all fours and bray like a donkey.
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As we reveal today, Mohamed Fayed, the gruesome goblin who presided over this vulgar hypermarket for the super-rich, terrorised his staff for decades.
Brave victims tell of how he used his power as self-appointed Shopkeeper-in-Chief to defile everyone from the girls on the perfume counter to one of his own PAs.
Like Belinda, who bravely reveals today how she was forced to abort a baby fathered by Fayed after he raped her.
And the poor assistant forced into that humiliating donkey routine for wearing the wrong shoes, then laughed at by a maniacal Fayed, drunk on his own sadism. No woman, it appears, was immune to Fayed's predatory perversions and warped views, with which he polluted both his Harrod's store and his Ritz hotel in Paris.
And tomorrow, in the second part of our serialisation of Alison Kervin's bombshell book, we will hear more of his criminal acts and how young victims who did not even work for him got caught up in his web of depravity.
The more the world learns about this evil Egyptian, who raped, abused and degraded hundreds of women, the more pressing the question: how the hell did he get away with it?
How was this larger-than-life character, so desperate to be British (his bid to be a citizen was denied twice after he failed the 'good character' test), able to carry out his despicable deeds?
Fayed and his reign of terror is a facsimile of that other monster hiding in plain sight, Jimmy Savile.
He too lived his entire life without facing justice — or even any police charges — for his appalling actions.
Both men were known to be predatory but were protected by a conspiracy of silence and cover-ups that sought to save the abuser at all cost.
Indeed, Fayed's crimes were enabled by many, possibly hundreds.
His reputation was airbrushed at every opportunity — not least by his old spokesman Michael Cole, who rushed to the airwaves to praise his former boss after his death aged 94 in 2023.
'Fayed did more good in the world than all his critics rolled together,' he declared. Some good!
Cole insists he never saw or knew of any crimes committed by his wonderful, benevolent boss.
But whatever he thought, there are many others — possibly hundreds — who could not make the same assertion.
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All the lawyers, managers, security staff, doctors, spin doctors on the phoney pharaoh's payroll.
Who forced the women to sign the NDAs?
Who sat by when Fayed bullied and humiliated staff yet said nothing?
And what of the CPS, which TWICE decided not to prosecute him despite evidence from police including that he raped a 15-year-old in the Harrods boardroom.
Numerous lawyers have now filed civil claims against Harrods.
No heads have rolled
The Justice For Harrods Survivors group is working with at least 260 women.
Harrods, now owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, has revealed it is in the process of settling more than 250 claims with payouts up to £385,000 if stringent — some say too stringent — tests are satisfied (such as agreeing to be seen by a consultant psychologist).
So cash and apologies are on the table.
Good. But still no heads have rolled.
Few other perpetrators have been singled out, despite Harrods conducting an undertaking review into who enabled Fayed.
That investigation rumbles on in private with no end in sight — and no guarantee that any of the survivors will actually get to see the outcome.
The secrecy has only exacerbated their pain and frustration.
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Meanwhile the Met Police are still investigating at least five people who may have assisted Fayed's offences.
Ex-Harrods shelf stacker Shanta Sundarason, who was attacked by Fayed in his office, this week wrote on behalf of the victims to Sir Keir Starmer demanding a public inquiry.
'We need people called up under oath . . . so we can understand how people were allowed to facilitate, to enable,' she said.
'We need to ensure this never happens again.'
Starmer should grant one, just as Harrods must reveal the findings of its own investigation.
Because until the enablers are uncovered there will remain one thing you absolutely cannot get from Harrods: justice.
SIMON'S JET TO JOLLIES
TUNED in to Simon Reeve's latest BBC2 travelogue on Scandinavia and thought I'd accidentally stumbled upon a party political broadcast from the Green Party.
Globe-trotting Simon filled a good chunk of his licence fee-funded show blasting Norway for daring to use its fossil fuel resources to create one of the world's happiest countries.
Norway does drill a huge amount of oil and gas, it's true, but exports the vast majority of it to places like, er, Britain.
It is then used for powering things such as jet engines, which propel people like eco-warrior Simon Reeve around the globe.
So far he has been to more than 130 different countries and I think it's fair to assume he didn't walk to many of them.
Wizard Arabella already battling trolls
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I SEE the low IQ mob were out in force this week having a pop at the new girl who will play Hermione in the Harry Potter reboot.
Poor old Arabella Stanton faced an onslaught in the usual social media swamps for having the temerity to not be porcelain white like the 'original' star Emma Watson.
I actually have no idea what this evidently talented youngster's ethnic mix is because frankly it's irrelevant.
Harry Potter is a fantasy world where the colour of anyone's skin matters not one bit.
And to those who think it does, I urge them to get hold of a dictionary and look up the word 'racist'.
UNITED IN GRIEF
AS a proper Man United fan – ie one who lives in North London – it's been a tough week.
I had managed to avoid any Spurs fans and their street parade near my home until Friday.
Having popped into a pub for a last one of the night, I bumped into a supporter of the Premier League's 17th-placed club, freshly returned from Bilbao.
A lack of sobriety meant I squawked out my club affiliation, expecting a barrage of banter at my expense. But it never came. Instead my new pal simply shrugged and said: 'Sorry, mate, but we needed it more than you.'
He was, of course, correct. And suddenly my exasperation evaporated – replaced by a warm feeling that humility can exist among supporters of the beautiful game.
QUITE A HAUL, HOYLE
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THE increasingly grand Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is evidently getting used to the high life on his five-star taxpayer-funded jaunts around the world.
He's now spent a further £55,000 of our cash doing up the four bathrooms and kitchen in his grace and favour flat in MARBLE.
No doubt the pompous MP for Chorley is looking to ensure his bathing quarters are of a high enough standard to house all the fancy toiletries he's been pocketing as part of the 300 gifts he has bagged over the past four years.
With all these state-funded furnishings and freebies, I'm starting to wonder if this servant of the people needs the £170,000 we pay him every year.
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