LONDON: More than 400 alleged victims or witnesses have come forward to lawyers concerning allegations of sexual misconduct against Mohamed Al Fayed, the late owner of London's iconic luxury store Harrods, reported German news agency (dpa).
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group said its first letter of claim had been sent to the department store – labelling it the "beginning of the formal legal process".
The group said the majority of the 421 inquiries they were dealing with were "in the Harrods context", but said others had contacted them from Fulham football club, the Ritz hotel in Paris and elsewhere.
The Metropolitan Police asked prosecutors to decide whether to charge the former Harrods and Fulham owner in relation to only two out of 21 women who made allegations, including of rape and sexual assault, between 2005 and 2023.
Evidence was shown to Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in 2009 and 2015, but it decided not to go ahead either because there was not "a realistic prospect of conviction".
Speaking at a press conference in central London on Thursday, lawyer Dean Armstrong said: "In order to ensure that no one... is under any illusions about our resolve, we are delighted to announce that we have reached an agreement with a major law firm who will be handling the processing of these claims.
"The law firm have areas of expertise in this field and, lest anyone be concerned about our ability to fight this cause to the end, backing of over £1 billion (US$1.3 billion).
"Even more exciting, but very sad that we are having to do it, is the fact that we can today announce that the first letter of claim has been sent to Harrods.
"That is the beginning of the formal legal process.
"It'll be followed today by another and it'll be followed the day after by others, and it'll be followed by hundreds more.
"If we are pushed, if our survivors are pushed, into having to defend themselves in order to achieve justice, we are ready, we are resourced and we are determined.
"This statement of our intent is the clearest signal possible that it is time for Harrods, time for the Fayed estate and time for Fulham FC amongst other sporting institutions to understand that now is the time to do the right thing."
Another member of the legal team, Bruce Drummond, said the first letter of claim concerned one alleged victim, but added: "It's literally the first of hundreds to come – it's going to snowball and snowball."
The announcements follow a number of women who made allegations against Al Fayed in a BBC documentary last month.
The BBC's Al Fayed: Predator At Harrods documentary reported the claims of five women who said they were raped by Al Fayed, with a number of others alleging sexual misconduct.
Questioned on how many "enablers" of Al Fayed's alleged sexual misconduct had been identified by the group, lawyer Maria Mulla said: "It was a very large web.
"Some of them are still alive – it's not in our ability to name names or announce who those individuals are."
Three alleged victims spoke of their shock at learning how many people had come forward with allegations against Al Fayed.
Speaking at a roundtable with the media, one who went by the name of Jen said: "It's astounding, it's horrifying and it's incredibly sad."
She and two other survivors, Lindsay and Gemma, walked into the press conference on Thursday morning holding bags bearing a crossed-out logo of Harrods.
"We don't think people should be shopping there, we think they should be going elsewhere," Lindsay said.
Jen told the roundtable that she felt it was important to expose Al Fayed as a "monster" after he died "otherwise he dies a hero, he dies this wonderful charitable man."
Asked what justice looked like, Gemma said she wanted to see checks introduced for HR departments "like Ofsted" to prevent future enabling of abuse in corporate environments.
Al Fayed acquired Harrods for £615 million in 1985.
In 2010, after 26 years in charge, he sold the department store to the Qatari royal family for a reported £1.5 billion.
Al Fayed died in 2023, aged 94. – BERNAMA