Mohamed al-Fayed, late Egyptian billionaire, is accused of raping and abusing women, according to a BBC documentary

Mohamed al-Fayed, the late Egyptian billionaire and former owner of luxury department store Harrods, raped and sexually abused some of his former female employees, a new BBC documentary has revealed.

The documentary “al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods” claims that the billionaire raped five women and sexually abused at least 15 others while they worked at the luxury department store.

Mohamed al-Fayed died last year at the age of 94. He sold Harrods to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund in 2010.

The victims told the BBC that the alleged attacks took place in London, Paris, Saint-Tropez and Abu Dhabi.

One woman told the BBC she was raped in al-Fayed's apartment as a teenager. “Mohamed al-Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass,” she told the BBC. Three other women said they were also raped by him in the apartment.

A fifth woman told the BBC that al-Fayed raped her in his apartment in the Villa Windsor in Paris and then forced her to wash herself with disinfectant.

“Obviously he wanted me to destroy any trace of him near me,” she told the BBC.

The BBC documentary makers said the women came forward after seeing al-Fayed's sympathetic portrayal in the Netflix series The Crown. One episode of the Netflix series covers Princess Diana's relationship with al-Fayed's son Dodi after her divorce from Prince Charles. Diana and Dodi died in a car crash in 1997, after which al-Fayed unsuccessfully waged a lengthy legal battle to prove the British royal family's role in their deaths.

In a statement, Harrods said: “We are deeply appalled by the allegations of abuse of power made by Mohamed al-Fayed. These were the actions of an individual who sought to abuse his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms. We also recognise that as a company we failed our employees, who were his victims, during this time and for that we sincerely apologise.”

“The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one that was owned and controlled by al-Fayed between 1985 and 2010. It is an organisation that seeks to put the wellbeing of our people at the heart of everything we do,” she added.

Harrods said that since the new information became known in 2023, its top priority has been to settle claims as quickly as possible.

“While we cannot undo the past, we are committed to doing the right thing as a company, guided by the values ​​we hold today, while ensuring that such behavior cannot be repeated in the future,” the company said.