A survivor of Mohamed Al Fayed’s sexual abuse has given a harrowing account of her struggling at his arms. Talking at a press convention in London, the lady – named as Natacha – instructed reporters she “walked into a lion’s den” when she accepted a job with the previous proprietor of Harrods division retailer in London.
She stated working for him had concerned a “layer of cover-ups, deceit, lies, manipulation, humiliation and gross sexual misconduct”.
Referring to Fayed, who died final yr at 94, as “the chairman”, Natacha stated he “preyed on the most vulnerable – those of us who needed to pay the rent and some of us who didn’t have parents to protect them”. She known as him a “highly manipulative” determine who initially went out of his option to make her really feel secure and cozy at work.
“Mohamed Al Fayed, a sick predator, lured me in by using the same modus operandi he used time and time again. I was subjected to Aids and STD testing without consent, and now believe in hindsight I was checked for my purity.”
As soon as he had lured her in, Natacha stated Fayed began to make use of non-public conferences to topic her to an escalating marketing campaign of bodily abuse. This culminated along with her being summoned to his non-public house one evening “on the pretext of a job review”.
She stated: “The door was locked behind me … I saw his bedroom door partially open – there were sex toys on view. I felt petrified. I perched myself at the very end of the sofa and then … Mohamed Al Fayed, my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself on to me.”
She stated after she was in a position to combat to free herself from his assault, “he laughed at me. He then composed himself and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was never to breathe a word of this to anyone. If I did, I would never work in London again, and he knew where my family lived. I felt scared and sick.”
One other survivor instructed the BBC she was raped after staying at certainly one of Fayed’s flats after a late shift at work. “I made it obvious that I didn’t want that to happen. I did not give consent. I just wanted it to be over,” she stated.
“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.”
One other girl, who labored as certainly one of Fayed’s private assistants between 2007 and 2009, instructed BBC Radio 4’s At this time programme she was “required” to have gynaecological exams to get the job and believed, wanting again, the exams have been checking for sexually transmitted infections.
She stated Fayed raped her throughout a visit to Paris and she or he felt “terrified” afterwards. “In Paris, there were security guards patrolling the house, there were security guards outside the house. We were locked in a gated property. We’d been escorted there that day by the police, so I felt like I couldn’t even go to the police, even if I could make my way out of the property.”