AMANDA PLATELL: Young Fayed victim whose tragic story is seared on my mind for ever By Amanda Platell for The Daily Mail Published: 02:29 BST, 21 September 2024 | Updated: 02:57 BST, 21 September 2024 e-mail View comments The news that 37 women have come forward claiming the late owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, raped or sexually abused them struck me like a thunderbolt. For it took me back to the shocking moment some decades ago when a young man came into my office in tears saying Al Fayed had repeatedly raped his teenage sister. I was a newspaper executive.
He was on my team and pleading for my help. He said his beautiful sister, who was disabled, had been fast-tracked on a Harrods programme working on the shop floor. Thirty-seven women have come forward claiming the late owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, raped or sexually abused them Like so many other impressionable girls, she was flattered at being singled out for Al Fayed's attention and too young to realise when he gave her expensive jewellery and hundreds of pounds that he was grooming her.
Al Fayed persuaded her to move from her East End flat into his Mayfair apartment block, his den for raping employees. The first night she stayed there, he appeared through adjoining doors wearing an open towelling robe. He forced himself on her, at the same moment saying he would pay for a £30,000 operation to cure her disability.
Her brother told me his sister was torn desperately, hoping that his promises were true. Of cour.