The Metropolitan Police referred just two of the 21 claims made against Mohamed Al-Fayed whilst he was alive to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) , according to the BBC . The revelation poses serious questions about the Met’s conduct of investigations into allegations of sexual assault against the billionaire, who died last year aged 94. Last month, a BBC documentary detailed dozens of accounts of sexual assault against employees at Harrods , the luxury department store owned by Al-Fayed between 1985 and 2010.
Since the documentary aired, at least 65 women have contacted the BBC to claim that they were victims to, with some cases going as far back as 1977. Last week, the police force confirmed that 40 women have approached them with claims of sexual assault between 1979 and 2013. Yesterday, Fulham football club , who were owned by Al-Fayed for 16 years, issued a statement in which they said they were “profoundly troubled” to hear that former captain of the women’s team Ronnie Gibbons’ account of abuse she suffered.
The CPS has stated that it made a charging decision on two allegations of sexual assault in relation to one female complainant. In 2015, it made a charging decision on one allegation of rape and an allegation of aiding and abetting rape by one female suspect. These allegations related to a different female complainant.
This means that in 19 cases, the Met did not pass files detailing the alleged abuse to the CPS. Crucially, in the two cases it did pass .