LONDON: Upmarket London department store Harrods on Tuesday said it was in discussions with more than 250 women to settle claims of sexual misconduct by former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed.
The disclosure came as the daughter of former England footballer Paul Gascoigne said she was assaulted by the late Egyptian billionaire when she worked at the store as a teenager but was threatened about speaking out.
Fayed has been accused of raping and sexually harassing scores of women, earning comparisons with high-profile sex offenders such as the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and US financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The slew of allegations came to light in a BBC documentary aired last month.
Harrods, which is under new ownership, said in a statement: “Since 2023, Harrods settled a number of claims with women who alleged historic sexual misconduct by Fayed.
“Since the airing of the documentary, so far there are over 250+ individuals who are now in the Harrods process to settle claims directly with the business.”
Fayed, who died last year aged 94, was one of Britain’s most well-known businessmen. His son Dodi was killed in a 1997 Paris car crash alongside Princess Diana, the former wife of King Charles III.
Claims since that he was also a serial sexual predator have prompted police to re-examine their files for formal complaints against the tycoon, and led to growing numbers of women initiate formal legal action.
Last weekend, the former captain of Fulham Ladies football team, where Fayed was chairman between 1997 and 2013, said he assaulted her at his Harrods office.
On Tuesday, Bianca Gascoigne told Sky News that she joined Harrods as a teenager and Fayed initially portrayed himself as a kindly figure, as her father battled addiction in the public eye.
“I literally felt quite safe in his presence early doors,” she told the broadcaster.
But she said she was left “gobsmacked” and “shell-shocked” when Fayed turned up unannounced at a Harrods apartment where she was staying, and sexually assaulted her.
Gascoigne, 37, said she did not speak out at the time because Fayed told her she would lose her job if she did. “I just got really scared,” she added.
Over 250 women in talks with Harrods over Al-Fayed claims
https://arab.news/cr9dt
Over 250 women in talks with Harrods over Al-Fayed claims
- The disclosure came as the daughter of former England footballer Paul Gascoigne said she was assaulted by the late Egyptian billionaire
- Al-Fayed has been accused of raping and sexually harassing scores of women, earning comparisons with high-profile sex offenders
Burkina jihadist attacks on army leave at least 10 dead
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast: Suspected Islamist militants attacked an army unit in northern Burkina Faso Sunday, the latest in a series of alleged jihadist attacks that have killed at least 10 people in four days, security sources told AFP.
The west African country, ruled by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has been plagued with violence from militants allied to Al-Qaeda or the Daesh group for more than a decade.
Social media has been awash with speculation that the spate of attacks may have killed dozens of soldiers, but AFP has been unable to independently verify those claims.
The junta, which seized power on the promise to crack down on the violence, has ceased to communicate on jihadist attacks.
On Sunday, militants carried out a major attack on a military detachment in the northern town of Nare, two security sources told AFP.
The previous day, the Burkinabe army’s unit in the northern city of Titao was “targeted by a group of several hundred terrorists,” one of the sources said.
While the source did not give a death toll for either attack, they said part of the military base in Titao had been destroyed.
The interior minister of Ghana, which borders Burkina Faso to the south, said the government had “received disturbing information from Burkina Faso of a truck carrying tomato traders from Ghana which was caught in a terrorist attack in Titao.”
Jihadist ‘coordination’
According to the same security source, another army base in Tandjari, in the east of the country, was also attacked Saturday, and several officers killed.
“This series of attacks is not a coincidence,” the source said. “There seems to be coordination among the jihadists.”
A separate security source told AFP that a “terrorist group attacked the (military) detachment in Bilanga,” in the east of the country, on Thursday.
“Much of the detachment was ransacked,” the source said, giving a toll of “about 10 deaths” among the soldiers and civilian volunteers fighting alongside the army.
A local source confirmed the attack, adding there was damage in the town of Bilanga, and that the assailants had stayed at the scene until the following day.
Despite the junta’s vow to restore security, Burkina Faso remains caught in a spiral of violence.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the unrest has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers since 2015 — and more than half of those deaths have come in the past three years.
