Mohamed al-Fayed ‘Was a Monster Enabled by a System,’ Lawyers Say

Attorneys for 37 women said they would sue Harrods, the luxury department store, over the rape and sexual assault they say its former owner committed.

Lawyers representing dozens of women who have detailed harrowing allegations of sexual assault by Mohamed al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, said on Friday that they would launch a civil case against the luxury British department store for allegedly enabling his abuse.

At a news conference on Friday, a day after a bombshell BBC documentary and podcast laid out a pattern of sexual violence and rape of female employees during the time that Mr. al-Fayed owned the store, lawyers for at least 37 women said Harrods had “acquiesced to” an unsafe environment that had failed the alleged victims. About 20 of those women looked on from the audience.

Mr. al-Fayed, who died last year at 94, was a billionaire tycoon who owned the iconic store from 1985 to 2010.

“We will say it plainly, Mohamed al-Fayed was a monster,” said Dean Armstrong, one of the lawyers, adding, “But he was a monster enabled by a system, a system that pervaded Harrods.”

Mr. al-Fayed was “enabled by unsafe systems of work which Harrods established, maintained, certainly acquiesced to, and, we say, facilitated during his chairmanship,” Mr. Armstrong said.

Harrods, which is now owned by the state of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, issued a statement shortly after the documentary was released on Thursday, saying it was “utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed al-Fayed.”

The company acknowledged that during his ownership, “we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologize.” It said its priority had been to “settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved.”

New accusations have emerged since the documentary, called “Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods,” aired on Thursday, lawyers said. The investigation featured the accounts of more than 20 female ex-employees whose allegations span years and continents, with accusations of assault in London, Paris, St. Tropez and Abu Dhabi. Five of the women say they were raped by Mr. al-Fayed.

On Friday, three British lawyers sat alongside one victim who shared a detailed account of abuse. They were accompanied by Gloria Allred, the American attorney known for representing women in high-profile abuse cases.

Mr. Armstrong said the allegations against Mr. al-Fayed combined “some of the most horrific elements of the cases involving Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.”

The lawyers said they would deal with each claim individually rather than through a class-action lawsuit, though civil claims had not yet been filed as they continued to investigate each case.

“Every survivor suffered different harm here and different long-term effects,” Mr. Armstrong said.

While the lawyers are focusing their initial efforts on holding Harrods accountable for what they describe as systemic failures and a culture that enabled the abuse, they said it was likely that civil suits could extend to other businesses Mr. al-Fayed owned, potentially in other countries.

“We are aware of allegations that have been made at other places of work,” said Maria Mulla, one of the lawyers representing the women. “But our investigations are obviously ongoing into all these entities that he had an involvement in.”

The lawyers said they were representing at least one employee of the Ritz Paris, which Mr. al-Fayed bought in 1979 and owned until his death. That hotel, in an emailed statement from a spokesperson, said it “strongly condemns any form of behavior that does not align with the values of the establishment,” adding that “the safety and well-being of our employees and guests are our absolute priority.”

Any case against the department store, and others who the lawyers say enabled Mr. al-Fayed’s behavior, could have international reach as the alleged sexual assaults took place in locations around the world. At least six of the accusers are from the United States, while others from Malaysia, Australia, Italy and Romania have also come forward.

Former employees said Mr. al-Fayed would scour the department-store floor and handpick women to work in his office. Many of those women were given intrusive gynecological medical checks and tested for sexually transmitted diseases, the results of which were sent directly to Mr. al-Fayed.

Around 20 women who said Mr. al-Fayed abused them filed into the room quietly at the start of the news conference on Friday. Many requested anonymity to protect their privacy.

Natacha, who spoke to reporters on the condition that only her first name be used, described how her one-time boss had manipulated and harassed her before ultimately sexually assaulting her. The abuse impacted her for years, and she said when she saw his obituary last year, it had overwhelmed her emotionally.

“I couldn’t believe that this monster had gotten away with his crimes. Thankfully today, this is a different story, and I’m really grateful for that,” she said.