Mohamed El Fayed

Very good point about social media. I hadn't thought about it's impact in bring these things out.

However I do think Saville would have been flushed out, especially on the hospital wards, and undercover TV, if everyone had a camera in their pocket, the way we do now.

That’s news for you. People forget, Saville came along etc. but I think it was the #me to movement which has really started to uncover all this. For men too with the owners of Abercrombie & Fitch. People are now seeing this as unacceptable compared to the 90’s/early 2000s. Standards have changed plus there was less social media etc to help push this out.

Diana is dead nearly 30 years that's still a long time for it not to come out.

I admire the attitude of his son Omar, he is obviously deeply upset as a son, but he's not making any excuses and is thinking of the victims as well:

"I will continue to support the principles of truth, justice, accountability, and fairness, regardless of where that journey may lead.
"No one is above the law, and all victims deserve their day in court."
Mohamed Al Fayed's son Omar 'horrified' by sexual abuse claims (bbc.com)

Well said.

As well as having ex met police as his security he gave lots of money to Max Clifford's charities, the publicist famous for kiss & tell stories but could also be bribed to cover up ones as well. He was also jailed for sexual assault.

It nearly did all come out in the past but then Princess Di died and it got dropped and silenced.

I read some of the accusations, uncovered by a Condé Nast journalist, in Private Eye back in the 90s.

Apparently the owner of Condé Nast abandoned the investigation after cutting a deal with Fayed, & then after Diana & Dodo’s death, no other outlet felt like pursuing it.

At the time Fayed was extreme cosy with a lot of the top Met police (Harrods Hampers!) & employed a lot of ex coppers as security.

It’s Private Eye day today & Im looking forward to the “Eye told you so!” edition.

He was a thug wrapped in green and gold.

I worked for an Iraqi like this. His wife was lovely he walked around under a cloud of menace and intimidation.

I heard a few years later that she had left him which was brave I thought.

One of the women was being interviewed on tv today and she said that she was physically threatened for years 'we know where your family live' etc and she was terrified.
If this was as much of an open secret as people say, you have to wonder what the fuck Diana was thinking.

Originally Max Clifford who cleaned up his mess. Terrified staff, dirt he had on people of influence which died with him August 2923 when he died.

What should be asked is why is it coming out now, and why was he never prosecuted while he was alive.

Because that's what we need to protect women in the future.

I don't see how the current owners could be held responsible for his actions in the past either.

I think the argument is that Harrods as an entity has vicarious liability, ie the crimes were committed by him in his position within the organisation, rather than as a private individual. So the organisation bears that responsibility.

What I'm not clear on is how that works when it's changed ownership since. I'm not getting the impression it's come as a surprise to the new owners though...

I worked in Selfridges in the early 2000s. There were lots of young women who worked on the beauty counters there and at Harrods (concessions) and they used to tell us some srufd, like all the brunettes and anyone over a size 8/over 21 being sent on long lunch breaks when he was visiting

Whilst all this was going on the head of the CPS was our prime minister people keep pointing out.

"Keir Starmer's time as Director of Public Prosecutions – The Labour Party" https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/keir-starmers-time-as-director-of-public-prosecutions/

Terrible. Savile all over again. Above the law because of his money and power.

Agree NDAs need to be curtailed and not used in such a way as to enable criminal behaviour and pervert the course of justice.

I also think the last series of The Crown should be removed from netflix. They had researchers on that show , they would have come across the previous investigations.

My sister was just telling me about someone at work who was walking down a path in the middle of the day when a man grabbed her from behind she punched him, got away and ran into a shop. The police came and refused to do anything as the woman had punched the man- they said that wasn't self defence and he could prosecute her if he wanted.

So that's the mountain we are still climbing. It's no wonder rich and powerful men get away with terrible crimes

Good piece here by Henry Porter, the Vanity Fair editor:

www.theguardian.com/global/2024/sep/22/remorseless-ruthless-racist-my-battle-to-expose-mohamed-al-fayed

It's all very David Icke to me. He's a conspiracy theorist and wrote a book about how the rich and powerful were engaged in networks of sexual exploitation back in the 90s. It seemed so woo (wonder how he knew----) but it's transpired to be true. Grim.

His predatory behaviour was well known when I started in journalism in the 1980s. Nothing could be proved - no court cases - because of the NDAs but it was common knowledge.

Edwina Currie signed off on it, as Hospitals Minister, in order to break a porters’ strike in Broadmoor. From Broadmoor he was able to get the same access in other hospitals.

I remember being surprised she was still making public appearances after it all came out, & nobody asking her about it.

What was your impression of her out of interest?

Absolutely vile.

I worked, for a very short period in the non glamorous tacky souvenir bit of Harrods during the 90s.

He used to do these very fast walks around the store with a huge team of body guards and scan the staff. His eyes never settled on me thank god. They did settle on my blonde, supermodel colleague who was 'disappeared' upstairs the next day. All the managers knew it was happening and that they'd be given flats on Park Lane. They spoke of him with fond reverence ie about his temper and taste for blonde girls. I was told that once a girl was kneeling down in the cupboard getting some stock and Mohammed had booted her up the arse and called her a 'fucking donkey.'