An Aussie doctor who allegedly performed sexual health tests on a future victim of Mohamed Al Fayed has denied claims she did so at his request, insisting that even if she had tested Harrods staff she would never have shared their details with the predatory billionaire.
Fayed, who died last year aged 94, has been accused of a litany of sex crimes against dozens of women, some as young as 15, during the years he owned London’s most prestigious department store.
Many of his offences were first detailed in an unauthorised 1998 biography by journalist Tom Bower.
But more sickening crimes have come to light following a recent BBC documentary in which more than 20 former Harrods’ staff accused Fayed of sexual assault, including rape.
On Friday, the Met Police announced they are now investigating 40 new allegations, bringing the total number of women who have complained to over 60.
The notorious germophobe Fayed is accused of ordering young female staff members whom he found attractive to undergo ‘invasive’ STD tests.
Dr Jane Reffell allegedly performed an ‘exhaustive gynaecological examination’ on a young lawyer who was hand-picked to work for Fayed in in 1989 because of her good looks.
The seedy billionaire would later make repeated sexual advances towards the lawyer then aged 25, forcing her to lock herself in the bathroom of his Paris suite.
Daily Mail tracked down Dr Reffell to the sleepy village of Bangalow in NSW’s Northern Rivers region, about 15 minutes inland from hippy hangout Byron Bay, where she has run a women’s health practice since 2002.
Mr Bowers’ book alleged Dr Reffell ‘understood what Fayed required’, which was for his female staff to have a clean bill of sexual health before he preyed on them.
However, Dr Reffell vehemently denied ever playing such a role.
‘I just don’t believe it was me,’ she told this publication.
‘There are other doctors that worked very closely with Fayed but I didn’t.’
When pressed on whether she had ever performed a sexual health test on a Harrods employee, Dr Reffell said: ‘I did do tests but it was on a private, confidential basis.
‘And I never did them for Al Fayed per se but I might have done them for his staff if they were patients of the practice.’
Mr Bowers’ book alleges that the results of the sexual health test were sent to Alison Bozek, Fayed’s secretary.
However, Dr Reffell said that the sharing of a patient’s confidential information was a ‘red line’ she would never cross.
‘We just wouldn’t do it,’ she said.
‘You’d have to have patient consent for that.’
Dr Reffell said she was ‘horrified’ by the revelations and expressed sympathy for Fayed’s victims.
‘I’m horrified to see my name mentioned, she said.
‘I was just bamboozled because patient confidentiality is such a cornerstone of medicine.
‘You don’t release information and the only way you can do is if you have the patients’ permission.’
She added: ‘It’s very concerning because I work with women all the time so confidentiality and care is really important.’
Fayed, who was known to stalk the halls of Harrods looking for attractive young women to work in his office on the top floor, relentlessly courted and cosied up to senior members of the Royal Family.
His movie producer son, Dodi, was dating Princess Diana when the couple died in a 1997 car crash in Paris.
Fayed’s insatiable appetite for harassing young women in his employment was both enabled and subsequently covered up by an army of highly-paid security guards, lawyers, publicists and doctors.
It is understood that Scotland Yard is actively pursuing those who may have helped Fayed carry out his crimes.
Another doctor, Ann Coxon, 84, is alleged to have carried out ‘invasive’ and ‘wholly unnecessary’ STD checks at the bequest of the disgraced billionaire.
The doctor, who still runs a clinic on London’s prestigious Harley Street, was named by victims of Fayed.
But last week when asked if she regretted working for the alleged sexual predator, she replied: ‘No, I don’t.’
One of Fayed’s victims, who is part of the Justice for Harrods survivors group, has told the BBC the ‘examinations carried out by Dr Coxon were intrusive and wholly unnecessary’.
‘They also resulted in many employees’ confidential medical information – including my own – being inappropriately shared within Harrods,’ the victim added.
‘This should not have happened.’
The victims’ group has reported Dr Coxon to the UK medical regulator, the General Medical Council.
Another doctor, Wendy Snell who has since died, was also accused of telling another victim not to sleep with her boyfriend so that she would be ‘clean’ for Fayed.
The victim, Gemma, said Al Fayed tried to convince her that she had a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
‘But it was a ploy to keep me away from my boyfriend to ensure I’d be clean for Al Fayed,’ she added.
In a letter Gemma shared with The Mail on Sunday in the UK, Dr Snell, Harrods’ in-house doctor at the time, wrote: ‘It is important you do not have any sexual contact with your boyfriend until you have been treated and cleared of infection.’
Gemma, then 24, who was raped by Fayed in Paris a month after starting work as a personal assistant at Harrods in 2008, suspected it was a trick.
She added: ‘Al-Fayed built this story that my boyfriend had given me an [STI].
‘We’d been together seven years… [We] went to our own GP, but we were both given the all-clear.’