Mohammed Al Fayed: CPS did not prosecute Harrods owner twice

The Crown Prosecution Service has said that it twice considered bringing charges against ex-Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed but concluded there was no realistic prospect of a conviction.

Police officers presented the CPS with evidence in 2009 and 2015 “which our prosecutors looked carefully at”, it confirmed.

Fresh allegations are being made about the late billionaire, 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 the businessman.

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.

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, as first reported by the Sunday Times.

But, in those instances a full file of evidence was not 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 making allegations against Fayed outlined their case against Harrods on Friday.

Harrods’ current owners said earlier this week they were “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,” they said in a response to the BBC investigation.

“We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise. We are doing everything we can to fix this.”

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.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said she was concerned by a culture of “powerful people who seem to get away with it” in response to the sex abuse allegations made against Al Fayed.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said: “I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to make sure that nobody is above the law and can hide in plain sight.”