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Amy Mcilquham was 21 years old when she was invited to go to Gstaad, Switzerland, for a long weekend with her boss.
Ms. Mcilquham had joined Harrods, the London department store in London in 1993. Canadian on a work program abroad, she was promoted to the workshop to become a personal assistant to Mohamed al-Fayed, who was a co-owner of The company with its young brothers, Salah and Ali.
At the beginning of 1994, she remembers, she rose aboard the private jet of the company and flew to GSTAAD to work as an Ali assistant.
Once there, however, there was no work to do, she said. She was alone in the chalet with Ali and a cleaning lady. Then Ali, who was in the early 1950s, took him to a swimming pool. She remembers the black swimsuit and the false pearl necklace she wore.
“I just remember that he pulled me, the trial and error of the size and my bottom, just seize and grop and get out,” said Mcilquham, now 52 years old, in an interview. She thinks it was the weekend of April 30, 1994 because she remembers that the Eurovision song competition was on television.
“I was assaulted, sexually assaulted, without a doubt. And he was just laughing, “she said.
A spokesperson for Ali, who is now 81 years old and lives in Greenwich, in Connecticut, denied the allegations of Mrs. Mcilquham and others. “The alleged incidents have simply never happened,” the spokesman said in a statement. “Mr. Fayed is not an author and will not be a scapegoat. He will defend himself robustly against these unfounded claims.”
In September, a BBC documentary revealed how Mohamed al-Fayed, the former billionaire president of Harrods, had mistreated women for decades before his death in 2023. More than 20 women shared stories of having been raped or sexually assaulted by him, detailing how He used his businesses to prepare and prepare and prepare himself and prepare and use them. Harrods apologized, describing him as “an individual who intended to mistreat his power wherever he operated”.
But during the months that followed, several former employees presented themselves to allege that his brothers – Salah, who died in 2010, and Ali – also attacked them, deepening a scandal which once appeared centered on a single man.
As a last living brother, Ali could always face possible repercussions while the dark history of the Fayed family and the emblematic department store they have led are determined. This month, the BBC published the accounts of three women, including Ms. Mcilquham, who said that Ali sexually assaulted while they worked for Harrods In the 1990s.
Mcilquham said that she thought what had happened to her in Switzerland had held in a wider system in companies belonging to Fays to exploit women. She said that Ali “exploited this system to her advantage”.
By presenting themselves, Ms. Mcilquham and others indicate a finger not only in Ali but also among doctors, recruiters, human resources professionals and others that have allowed the alleged abuses in Fayeds businesses.
The accounts given to the New York Times by three other women who said that they had been targeted by Mohamed or Salah, as well as the court documents, signal an operating model in Harrods and Ritz Paris, a hotel that the brothers have also possessed. Documents, emails and corroborating details of other women provide additional evidence of their allegations.
Harrods, who now belongs to the Qatar sovereign heritage fund, said he would not comment on individual cases but “supports the bravery of all survivors to manifest himself”.
“Their allegations highlight the extent of Mohamed Fayed’s abuse and raise serious allegations against his brothers, Salah and Ali Fayed,” said a spokesperson for Harrods.
Women have been recruited in positions where they would be vulnerable.
The Fayed brothers, born in Egypt, founded together a maritime company and then raised oil, banks and real estate interests worldwide.
They bought the Ritz Paris in 1979 and Harrods in 1985. When Mohamed moved to London in 1974, he added “Al-” to his name, although his brothers were always passed by Fayed. Mohamed later became known for the romance between his son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess of Wales, who both died in a car accident in 1997. Salah and Ali remained less known figures, but their commercial interests were linked.
The four women interviewed by the Times described were recruited in executive training programs that brought them closer to the brothers. Two women said they had been targeted by more than one brother.
In October 1993, while working as Mohamed’s personal assistant, Ms. Mcilquham was sent to Villa Windsor, the Manor of Paris where Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson formerly lived, and which Mohamed had rented. After falling asleep, she said, Mohamed entered his room with just a towel around his waist and crawled in his bed.
“The trial and error, the hacking, the touching, entering him just for you, it was horrible,” she said. He finally left when she mentioned her mother. Another Harrods employee, who asked to remain anonymous for confidentiality problems, was traveling with Ms. Mcilquham and corroborated the stay at Villa Windsor, and the date – October 13, 1993 – which she had recorded in her newspaper .
Ms. Mcilquham said that she hadn’t talked to anyone about Mohamed’s assault or Ali to grope about her because she assumed that she would be blamed. She needed work to pay her rent, and she continued to work for Harrods until 1996, when she left Great Britain. “I had to distance myself from what was going on and move away as far as possible,” she said.
Rachael Louw, now 53, joined Harrods in 1993 before being recruited the following year as a personal assistant of Salah. In the summer of 1994, a supervisor told him to accompany Salah to his yacht and received money for new clothes. She traveled on a Harrods plane with Salah in France before a driver took them to Monaco.
“I thought I would have files to submit, documents to put away, maybe I would make the travel arrangements,” she said. But there was nothing, she said.
Salah asked him not to speak to the staff and proposed it several times sexually. Each time she pushed him away. Then, one night, he went up in his bed, she said. “He said,” I’m alone, I just want to sleep with you, “she said. “It was the longest night of my life. I’m just lying there and I couldn’t sleep.
Subsequently, Ms. Louw asked to return to her previous job in the workshop and tried to continue her life. But in 1996, she said that Mohamed called her in her Park Lane apartment for documents. Once there, Mohamed put his hand in his skirt and stained it, said Ms. Louw.
Like Mrs. Mcilquham, she did not feel able to express himself at the time. “It was only part of my life that I put in a box and I never opened,” said Ms. Louw, who too talked about his experiences With Sky News this month.
Other women have shared accounts in recent months after being mistreated by Salah, including in November BBC report. In a trial brought in London on January 29, a woman who obtained anonymity by the courtyard, alleged that Salah had druged her and raped her While working for Harrods and forced her to “put an end to a forced pregnancy”, according to court documents. She continues the company.
The abuses have extended to other companies belonging to the Fayed.
Kristina Svensson, 56, worked at Ritz Paris from 1998 to 2000 as a personal assistant of Mohamed. She said that the Ritz senior executives knew that the employees were abused there, an allegation supported by an email seen by the Times.
“We have not been hired for real jobs. We were hired to be sexually abused, “she said.
When she met Mohamed for the first time, he kissed her by force, she said, pushing her tongue in her mouth. On another occasion, when she was alone with him in an office, Mrs. Svensson said that he opened her legs with her knee, then pushed his head into his crotch.
“I was so, so frightened, and I couldn’t escape,” she said.
She felt unable to speak, she said, because of the threat of losing her job. But in the end, she said, she said to a manager superior to the Ritz Paris about the abuses and informed them that she planned to resign. A few days later, she was dismissed.
Ms. Svensson described her allegations against Mohamed in a 2003 letter to a lawyer representing another hotel employee who said she had also suffered sexual assault. In the letter, seen by Times, she noted that she had reported sexual abuse to senior executives before leaving the Ritz Paris.
At least another woman, Pelham Spong, told Ritz that Mohamed had attacked her, in an exchange of emails seen by Times. Mrs SVENSSONThe account was included in the BBC documentary last year, and Mrs Spong has already spoken publicly about his assault.
Ms. Spong, who is American, was 23 years old and lived in Paris when a recruiter asked in 2008 if she would consider a job as a fayed assistant in Monaco. “I remember thinking – I am a woman on ambition. I think I’m quite intelligent, and it seems incredible, “said Ms. Spong. In London, she received a gynecological examination which, according to the doctor of the company, would remain confidential – a process that many victims of Mohamed also said.
It has been found that it has an infection and prescribed an antibiotic. Subsequently, she was sent to the Mohamed office. “He sat me and said,” You saw the doctor. Have you taken care of this problem? “She said. “I was humiliated.”
He proposed to send him to business school, pay him rent and give him money, she said, in exchange for sex. Then she said, he caught his face and kissed her by force. Upon her return to Paris, she reported the assault to the recruiter, who shared the information with the leaders of the Ritz. Ms. Spong was informed that it was no longer necessary for work. The emails between the recruiter and the Ritz Paris, seen by the Times, corroborate his account.
The Ritz Paris said that he is carrying out an investigation carried out by external advice. “We are alarmed by recent testimonies and allegations of abuse,” the Ritz said in a statement. “We do not tolerate any form of violence or sexual coercion and we want to express the deepest sympathy to courageous women who have manifested themselves.”
London metropolitan police have received more than 100 allegations against Mohamed al-Fayed since the BBC documentary was broadcast. In November, police said they were investigator At least five people who may have facilitated abuse.
Sigrid McCawley, managing partner of Boies Schiller Flexner, who represents Ms. Spong and represented some of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, stressed the importance of concentrating not only on abuses, but also on the system in which she occurred .
“What we have seen with the history of the Fayeds is only a saga that smells of catalysts,” she said, “because we see this systemic abuse occurs, and this well-oiled machine of all These very sophisticated individuals helped him commit these crimes. »»
Sarah hurts Contributed reports.
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