When Mohamed Al-Fayed died in 2023 he was seen, largely, as an endearingly eccentric billionaire. Whether accusing the Royal Family of murdering Princess Diana - along with his son, Dodi - appearing on Da Ali G Show and Celebrity Big Brother or placing a statue of Michael Jackson outside of a Premier League ground, the Egyptian was never far from the headlines. He was also, it appears, a prolific sexual predator.
In a BBC documentary, five women said they were raped by Fayed when working at his luxury department store, Harrods, with dozens more saying they had been sexually assaulted. By the end of the week the number was thought to be around 200, with allegations he had also assaulted women working at Fulham FC, the football club he owned until 2013. Read More: The Harrods boss, his Scottish castle, and those shocking rape revelations Mohamed Al Fayed – timeline of an alleged serial sexual predator No, not every man.
But the men who aren't must vent fury at the monsters among you Of the litany of accusations against him, one was of a "non-recent sexual assault" at his former estate in the Highlands and that, too, casts his history with Scotland in an entirely new light. Fayed bought the Balnagown Estate, the historic stronghold of the Ross clan, in 1972. The previous owner had been Sir Charles Ross, 9th Baronet, once believed to have been Britain's largest landowner thanks to an estimated 1,480 square kilometres of Scottish land.
Sir Charles was the inventor of the Ross ri.