Over 400 accuse late ex-Harrods owner Al-Fayed of sexual misconduct

More than 400 survivors or witnesses have come forward alleging sexual misconduct against the former owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed.

A lawyer representing the Justice for Harrods Survivors group said it was one of the worst cases of corporate sexual abuse of women the world had ever seen.

The abuse allegedly took place at Harrods, the Ritz hotel in Paris and Fulham football club, which Al Fayed also owned.

Al Fayed, who died in August last year, was first accused of sexual assault by 20 women in a BBC documentary in September.

Hundreds more women have since come forward, claiming the billionaire abused them over a period of thirty years.

The BBC reported they had uncovered a report of sexual assault against Al Fayed to the London Metropolitan Police as early as 1995.

Many of the survivors and witnesses were employees of Al Fayed, with lawyers confirming they came from the UK, US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia.

“Our survivors have been let down by significant parts of our society,” lawyer Dean Armstrong said, singling out corporations and sporting institutions as complicit in sexual misconduct.

Former Harrods staff who were alleged victims of Al Fayed have called for a boycott of the department store, posing with tote bags with the department store’s logo crossed out.

Harrods, which has new owners, has said it was “appalled” by the allegations and had launched an investigation into whether any current staff members were complicit in them.

The Justice for Harrods Survivors group has questioned the impartiality of the lawsuit and announced that it will launch its own against the department store.

Armstrong confirmed the lawyers reached an agreement with a “major law firm” to handle the processing of the victims’ and witnesses’ claims.

He added that they had backing of over a billion pounds and that the first letter of claim had been sent, marking the “beginning of the formal legal process”.

“It’s literally the first of hundreds to come – it’s going to snowball and snowball,” laywer Bruce Drummond said.