Amy remembers walking into Harrods in 1993 and being dazzled by the glittering beauty around her. She had just graduated from Trent University and had applied for a job at the luxury department store in London.
She was just 21 years old when she was hired at Harrods to work on the shop floor and sell Furla and Moschino purses. It was the first time Amy had ventured so far from her home in Peterborough, Ont.
“I could never imagine being in such an amazing building. It was just full of luxury and wonders and beauty,” Amy, 52, said during an interview with Canadian journalists in London. “It was a dream come true.”
That dream turned into a nightmare after she caught the attention of Mohamed Al Fayed, the former chairman and owner of Harrods.
She remembers being approached by human resources and was told that the chairman wanted to meet her and to “look good for him.” In that first meeting, Amy said, Al Fayed inquired about her upbringing and education and was “interested” to know that she was in London alone, on her first experience abroad.
After that meeting, Amy was told that she was getting promoted, no longer working on the shop floor, but being moved to a position working in Al Fayed’s private office overlooking Hyde Park. Before the transfer, Amy was sent to a doctor for a gynecological exam. It was the first time she got a pap smear, but never saw the results of the test.
“(I) was moving into a more intimate situation, closer to his playing field… I just thought this was part of the screening process.”
Amy said she assumed the employees were being well taken care of because she was sent to a female doctor who had an office on a prestigious street.
“She was at Harley Street — people here in London understand that’s where the best doctors are.”
Her responsibilities at Al Fayed’s private office included answering the phone and collating documents. It was a location she says that isolated her from public eyes, where the chairman could allegedly fondle, grope and kiss her.
A few other young women worked in that office. All of them were aware that they were being monitored by security guards and that there were video cameras recording their every move, according to Amy.
Amy says after the transfer, the chairman became “very possessive” and increasingly controlling of her. She was told that she had to be where he wanted her to be. One day, she was ordered to join Al Fayed on a business trip to Paris.
She says she flew to France on Al Fayed’s private plane. But instead of staying at the Ritz Paris Hotel that he owned, Al Fayed allegedly told Amy that they would be spending the night at the Villa Windsor. The Egyptian billionaire was leasing the Parisian home that once belonged to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor for one million francs a year.
That night, Amy stayed in a small room with a single bed that she could tell was meant “for a child” and decorated for a boy. In the middle of the night, the door handle turned. Amy says Al Fayed allegedly walked in nearly naked except for a towel wrapped around his waist.
“He’s a man with a large abdomen and the towel didn’t cover him properly. He proceeded to get into this bed on top of me and assault me with the clear intent of raping me.”
To guard against his “aggression,” she blurted out “If my mother only knew.”
Those words Amy said, stopped Al Fayed in his tracks. He then left the room. She says the next day, he acted as though nothing happened while fear coursed through her body. Amy knew she couldn’t escape.
“I had no passport. I had no phone. I didn’t know where I was.”
Amy is one of dozens of women and former employees who have come forward to allege that they were sexually abused by the London-based businessman. They have met with a team of British lawyers to seek accountability through civil action.
“Mohamed Al Fayed is a monster … but he’s a monster enabled by a system that pervaded Harrods,” said Dean Armstrong, a lawyer on the case.
“We are going to set out our claim, and show how our claim shows an abject failure of corporate responsibility and a failure to provide a safe place of work.”
In their news conference, the Harrod survivors’ legal team gave examples of how management allowed Al Fayed to turn the store into his perverse hunting ground.
Multiple young women were subjected to cervical exams to determine their “sexual health.” The phone lines were bugged, and security guards threatened the women if they complained, while others were intimidated into signing NDAs. They pointed out that Al Fayed’s youngest victim was 15 years old, and while her sexual assault complaint in 2009 triggered a criminal investigation, it did not result in any charges.
Al Fayed, who both courted and confronted royalty and politicians, died last year. He was 94. He had sold Harrods to Qatari investors in 2010. The new corporate owners have apologized to the victims, but say they weren’t aware of the extent of the abuse until last year when “new information” came to light. The company has offered to settle claims as quickly as possible.
But the British barristers refuse to let current managers off the hook. Armstrong points out that prior to the BBC’s just-released documentary, there have been three exposes about Al Fayed’s sexual misconduct, one by Vanity Fair in 1995, ITV in 1997 and Channel 4 in 2017.
“(Al Fayed) died without taking responsibility for what he did to many of his victims. These victims have suffered for years, even decades,” said American women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented women assaulted by high-profile predators including Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and R. Kelly.
Allred reminded the women that “civil justice” was still possible.
“Al Fayed was determined to silence them. They will be silenced no more,” Allred said as she announced she will join the British legal team in their fight.
Only one survivor at the news conference felt comfortable sitting on the dais and speaking to the group of reporters without her face being concealed.
“Natacha” revealed her face but not her full name.
“If you can stand together as women, you have the strength to not be afraid anymore.”
The room broke into applause at those words. Among those clapping for “Natacha” was fellow survivor Amy. The harassment and attempted assault had left her anxious. But in this room, with these women launching a legal fight together, she felt lighter and no longer isolated.
“Being together with these women is empowering.”
