Attorneys for 37 alleged victims of sexual assault referred to the billionaire as a “monster enabled by a system that pervaded Harrods” during a London press conference.
According to Dean Armstrong KC, the case “combines some of the most horrific elements” of the Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and Jimmy Savile cases.
The 94-year-old billionaire, who was born in Egypt, took over the upscale department store in 1985 and subsequently expanded his holdings to include the Paris Ritz and Fulham Football Club. He passed away last year.
One of his purported victims, Natacha, claimed that at the age of 19, she was a “young, naive, and totally innocent” person.
When she acquired a job at Harrods in downtown London, she felt she had been given “the chance of a lifetime” and thought it was “entirely innocent” when she was offered extra money and gifts to send home to her parents.
Unaware that I had entered a place of cover-ups, deceit, lies, manipulation, humiliation, and egregious sexual misbehavior, I had entered a lion’s den,” Natacha remarked, characterizing Fayed as a “predator” who “preyed on the most vulnerable.”
