Former Harrods workers have claimed Mohamed Al Fayed was sent the results of sexual health tests they were offered as a ‘perk of the job’.
The BBC has published claims that Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, raped multiple members of staff who worked for him at the famous department store, and subjected them to coercive behaviour.
Multiple women have come forward to claim the late Egyptian businessman sexually abused them in the Knightsbridge store and at his properties in the UK and abroad.
Speaking to the BBC as part of its documentary, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, several sources said they were made to undergo medical check-ups, including a sexual health test that came as ‘an extra perk of the job’, at the hands of a store doctor.
One woman told the broadcaster she had a smear test, and a doctor checked her ovaries.
She said: ‘My results were sent directly to the chairman so quickly that by the time I had got back to my desk, he knew the results.’
One woman told filmmakers: ‘There is no benefit to anybody knowing how my sexual health is, unless you’re planning to sleep with somebody, which I find quite chilling now.’
Dozens of women have come forward to accuse Al Fayed, who rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, of horrifying attacks ranging from sexual harassment to violent rapes.
Many of the women who have spoken up describe relentless sexual harassment from the billionaire, with this often beginning almost immediately after being hired.
Gemma, who worked as Al Fayed’s personal assistant between 2007 and 2009, claims she was subjected his perverted behaviour almost immediately after starting work for him.
She said this included him grabbing her breasts and demands she have sex with him, before he raped her at Villa Windsor, a former home of post-abdication King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson.
Speaking the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Gemma said she would often try to avoid the worst of his behaviour by locking herself in her room or bathroom when on trips abroad.
She claimed how on one trip to Abu Dhabi she locked herself away and ignored him knocking on the door in the middle of the night, with Al Fayed becoming ‘really cross’ the next morning.
Gemma recalled: ‘He said: “You didn’t let me in last night, why did you not let me in? I told you if you’re coming on this trip you have to be nice with me.” When he said “be nice with me”, it meant he wanted you to please him sexually.’
She added that on one occasion she was able to ‘talk my way out of it’ when he came into her room wearing nothing by a silk gown and holding a tub of Vaseline in the middle of the night.
The alleged victim told host Emma Barnett she was then raped by him on a trip to Paris before callously being told to clean herself up afterwards.
Gemma said ‘He directed me to go into the bathroom and clean myself. And when I got in there he’d pointed me to a bottle of Dettol, that was on the side. It was on the side of the shower. And he said: “Just clean yourself”.
‘And the time I thought – being the super-freakish person he was about germs – I just assumed that was the reason.
‘But looking back, now I’m old and more mature, I realise that was probably to cover up any kind of evidence that would have left his trace on me. He left the room and he acted the next day like nothing had happened.’
Gemma is one of multiple women to have spoken in a new BBC documentary titled Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, with the alleged victims talking about their experiences with the tycoon.
She told filmmakers ‘I think Mohamed Al Fayed is a rapist – he is a serial rapist’ and claimed that afterwards she felt so unsafe that she was unable to speak up until he died.
Another of his alleged victims, Rachel – not her real name – told the BBC she was raped after staying at one of Mr Al Fayed’s apartments after a late shift at work.
She said: ‘I made it obvious that I didn’t want that to happen. I did not give consent. I just wanted it to be over.
‘I remember feeling his body on me, the weight of him. Just hearing him make these noises. And just going somewhere else in my head.’
Harrods began settling claims with women who came forward alleging to have been sexually abused at his hands in July last year.
Following the allegations, Harrods published the following statement on its website: ‘We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed.
‘These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise.
‘The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.
‘This is why, since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved. This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.
‘While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.’
has contacted Harrods for further comment.