CPS did not prosecute Harrods owner twice

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said it twice did not bring charges against Mohamed Al Fayed over sex abuse claims.

Fresh allegations are being made about the late billionaire who owned Harrods and who died last year at the age of 94.

A BBC documentary has led to dozens of women coming forward to say they were raped or sexually assaulted by Egyptian businessman Fayed.

The CPS said it considered bringing charges against Fayed in 2009 and 2015 – but, on both occasions it “concluded there was no realistic prospect of a conviction”, as first reported by the Sunday Times.

In 2008, the Metropolitan Police investigated Fayed after a 15-year-old girl said he sexually assaulted her in the Harrods boardroom.

The force said it handed a file of evidence to the CPS – a step which has to be taken before charges can be issued – but prosecutors decided no further action should be taken.

A CPS spokesperson told the BBC: “We reviewed files of evidence presented by the police in 2009 and 2015.

“To bring a prosecution the CPS must be confident there is a realistic prospect of conviction – in each instance our prosecutors looked carefully at the evidence and concluded this wasn’t the case.”

Three other investigations into claims made by three other women – in 2018, 2021 and 2023 – got to an advanced enough stage that the CPS was called in to advise detectives.

But, in those instances a full file of evidence was never passed to prosecutors.

Fayed bought Harrods in 1985 and sold it in 2010.

More than 20 women have told the BBC the businessman sexually assaulted or raped them while they worked at Harrods luxury department store in London.

The legal team representing many of the women the BBC has spoken to outlined their case against Harrods on Friday.

Harrods’ current owners said earlier this week they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations and that “victims were failed”.

The company said it is a “very different organisation” now and “seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do”.

The department store’s new owners have a compensation scheme for ex-employees who say they were attacked by Fayed, which is separate to the legal action being taken by some accusers.

Harrods has already reached financial settlements with the majority of people who have approached them since 2023, and has had new inquiries this week.

Harrods is accepting vicarious liability for the actions of Fayed, and there are no non-disclosure agreements attached to the settlements.

Dean Armstrong KC, one of the barristers representing alleged victims, said he was “at a loss” as to what the new information Harrods received in 2023 may have been.

In a BBC interview on Saturday, he argued the new owners – who bought Harrods in 2010 – “either didn’t know [about the allegations] – which I find very difficult to accept – or refused to acknowledge that there was this background of sexual misconduct”.

Mr Armstrong also said his team had 37 clients, but that the number of people who had contacted them with claims about Fayed was approaching 150.

Lawyers allege Fayed’s assaults occurred around the world – including in the UK, US, Canada, France, Malaysia and Dubai.

“It’s very much a global case, it’s not just the UK. It happened all over the world,” another lawyer, Bruce Drummond, told the BBC.