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Harrods was accused of a “systematic failure of company accountability” by a lawyer representing alleged victims of Mohamed Al Fayed, following a slew of claims of sexual assault in opposition to the late former proprietor of the London division retailer, together with rape.
Dean Armstrong KC, representing among the alleged victims, stated in a press convention in London on Friday: “That is and was a scientific failure of company accountability and that systematic failure is on the shoulders of Harrods.
“We aren’t going to get right into a scenario the place there’s any room for anybody to hunt to keep away from accountability,” he added, “so we pursue Harrods and we deal with Harrods at this stage due to the collective accountability.”
His feedback got here after the BBC broadcast the allegations in opposition to Al Fayed in a documentary and podcast in regards to the businessman, who died last year aged 94. His son Dodi was killed alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in a automotive crash in Paris in 1997.
Greater than 20 girls alleged to the BBC that that they had been sexually assaulted by the billionaire, with 5 alleging that they had been raped. The ladies, who labored at Harrods from the late Nineteen Eighties to the 2000s, stated the alleged assaults had been carried out on the firm’s workplaces, in Al Fayed’s London house or on journeys overseas. Within the exposé, the BBC claimed that Harrods did not intervene and in addition helped cowl up allegations in opposition to Al Fayed.
Al Fayed owned and managed Harrods between 1985 and 2010, when he offered it to a Qatari sovereign wealth fund for a reported £1.5bn.
Armstrong, who’s a part of the authorized crew retained by a lot of alleged victims alongside US lawyer and ladies’s advocate Gloria Allred and barrister Maria Mulla, added that any potential authorized proceedings weren’t about monetary compensation however about “a lot, rather more”.
“If Harrods really feel that they must compensate girls financially for what they’ve completed and the way they failed them, then, after all, that’s one thing which we’d welcome. However we aren’t going to sit down right here and settle for any suggestion that we’re solely thinking about cash,” he stated.
On Thursday legislation agency Leigh Day, which is representing a person alleged to have been subjected to trafficking, rape and abuse by Al Fayed, stated it was additionally potential claims, together with in opposition to Harrods. The agency is working with US legislation agency Motley Rice. Harrods stated it will not touch upon particular person claims.
The retailer stated on Friday it had accepted “vicarious legal responsibility for the conduct of Al Fayed” with a purpose to settle claims that had been delivered to Harrods’ consideration since 2023, including it “has reached settlements with the overwhelming majority of individuals” who approached it.
Harrods declined to touch upon the quantity paid to girls who alleged sexual misconduct, and stated no claims had been excellent on the time of the documentary airing.
“Harrods has acquired new enquiries because the broadcast which we are going to cope with swiftly and punctiliously,” the corporate added, saying “there have been no [non-disclosure agreements] hooked up to those settlements” and it will not search to implement “any NDAs that relate to alleged sexual abuse by Al Fayed that had been entered into throughout the interval of his possession”.
In a press release on its web site in response to the documentary, which aired on Thursday, the group stated it was “totally appalled” by the allegations. The corporate added that “throughout this time his victims had been failed and for this we sincerely apologise”.
“Whereas we can’t undo the previous, we now have been decided to do the best factor as an organisation, pushed by the values we maintain right now, whereas guaranteeing that such behaviour can by no means be repeated sooner or later.”
Harrods stated it was “a really completely different organisation to the one owned and managed by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010”.
In the meantime, London soccer membership Fulham FC, owned by Al Fayed from 1997 till 2013, stated it had been deeply troubled and anxious by the studies within the documentary.
“We have now honest empathy for the ladies who’ve shared their experiences,” the club said. “We’re within the course of of building whether or not anybody on the membership is, or has been, affected.”
Mulla was quoted by the BBC as saying the authorized crew weren’t representing any girls in reference to Fulham. “However our investigations are clearly ongoing into all these entities that he had an involvement in.”
