Criminal probe launched into more than five 'fixers' of Mohamed Al Fayed sex abuse

By Fraser Knight

Police have opened a new criminal investigation into more than five people who may have helped former Harrods boss Mohamed al-Fayed to carry out decades of abuse against women.

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90 victims have come forward with allegations of rape and sexual assault against him since the latest publicity around his offending and an appeal by the Metropolitan Police.

They add to 21 others who had previously contacted officers with claims before his death.

The youngest of his victims is believed to have been just 13 years old with the recorded allegations spanning from 1977 to 2014.

Commander Stephen Clayman, who is leading the Met’s team of investigators, said: “While al-Fayed is no longer alive to face prosecution we are determined to bring anyone who is suspected to have played a part in his offending to justice.

“We have now launched an investigation into a number of people associated with Mohamed al-Fayed and it will look at what role they may have played in facilitating or enabling his offending and what opportunities they had to protect his victims from abuse.

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“Our priority is to provide justice, answers and support to those affected by these awful crimes.”

Al-Fayed, who also owned the Ritz hotel in Paris and held a controlling interest of Fulham Football Club during his career, died last year without facing any criminal charges.

Police had previously sent two files to prosecutors to consider charges, including as part of one investigation where he had been arrested, in 2013. Both were rejected.

Specialist officers are now reviewing those investigations with enhanced techniques to see if they missed anything, while exploring whether any evidence points towards people close to al-Fayed who may have enabled his abuse.

Lawyers representing dozens of former Harrods employees who have made allegations against their former boss said earlier this month that they had ‘credible evidence’ which suggested the abuse was ‘not limited to Mr Al-Fayed himself’.

They said: “Make no mistake, the abuse experienced by our survivors was facilitated and enabled by a vast infrastructure – an infrastructure that must be exposed and torn down.”

Responding to the new criminal investigation by the Met, Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, the human rights campaigner and new survivors’ advocate at Harrods, told LBC: “It’s about time.

“This is what victims and survivors have been saying, this abuse and harm could not have happened without other people enabling it.

“From the security guards to the people in HR, to the other people who looked the other way, just as was the case with Jimmy Saville, this was enabled by the fact that these individuals didn’t speak out.”

“In terms of those that potentially enabled it, could be in the hundreds.

“Everybody I speak with says to me ‘this man was a vile man’ and they make references to the 70s, 80s and 90s - people are very clear in saying that now but they always knew that.”

Already, the Met says more than 50,000 pages of evidence have been looked at and a referral has been made to the police watchdog over complaints made by two women about the standards of investigation.

The force has also faced allegations of police corruption, with the Guardian reporting that officers were accused of taking bribes to help al-Fayed persecute staff and avoid accusations of abuse.

The results of the internal review are due to be published next month.