Mohamed Al Fayed pretended he had dementia so he may evade prosecution for sexual crimes, his son has mentioned.
Police now consider Fayed could have raped and abused no less than 111 ladies and women over almost 4 a long time.
His youngest son, Omar Fayed, 37, in contrast his father to a Nazi conflict prison in an interview with the Mail on Sunday and mentioned that others received his father “off the hook on the grounds he was mentally incapacitated”. He added that “afterwards it was again to enterprise – he was as sharp as a tack”.
Omar Fayed, a tech entrepreneur who was as soon as attributable to inherit Harrods, mentioned he wished the “investigation had been capable of take its course when he was nonetheless alive”. Fayed died final yr on the age of 94.
Omar Fayed added: “If a Nazi normal is discovered to have been hiding within the Algarve for the final 50 years, then after all he needs to be tried.”
His feedback recommend that police missed a possibility to deliver expenses when allegations surfaced in 2017 and 2018, when his father was in his late 80s.
One lady who made an announcement to the police in 2018 about sexual abuse by the previous Harrods proprietor was informed that he was too previous to be prosecuted and that he was not in the precise frame of mind due to dementia.
A yr earlier Fayed had been the topic of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary that accused him of sexually harassing younger staff, together with a 17-year-old he had recruited. An unsuccessful try to forestall broadcast was made on the grounds that Fayed was mentally incapacitated.
Cheska Hill-Wooden informed the documentary that she was sexually assaulted by Fayed in 1993, when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actor, after he approached her to turn out to be a private assistant.
Hill-Wooden mentioned he had requested her to vary right into a swimming costume earlier than filming her, with the excuse that his movie producer son, Dodi, would possibly be capable to assist along with her performing profession. She mentioned Fayed kissed her and that when she pushed him away, he mentioned: “In case you don’t sleep with me, I can’t show you how to.”
Hill-Wooden informed the Mail on Sunday: “Listening to that he faked sickness to flee justice is appalling, however completely per the behaviour of this despicable particular person who believed he may act with impunity. It’s deeply unhappy for the sake of so many ladies that he didn’t face justice when alive.”
Commenting on Fayed’s failed makes an attempt to forestall the published of the documentary in 2017, she mentioned: “The authorized letter mentioned he had dementia and that we should always think about his grandchildren as they’re in school. However I bear in mind considering on the time that I wasn’t lengthy out of faculty myself when he did what he did to me.”
The Guardian reported claims that corrupt law enforcement officials helped Fayed persecute members of his employees, together with a younger lady who allegedly rebuffed his sexual advances.
Fayed was arrested in 2013 over a rape allegation, however by no means charged.
The Metropolitan police wouldn’t touch upon Omar Fayed’s suggestion that his father had tricked them into believing he had dementia.
Reissuing an earlier assertion made on the announcement of a brand new investigation into those that may need facilitated Fayed’s offending, the Met mentioned: “No prison expenses have been introduced towards Al Fayed whereas he was alive and we recognise the impression this has had on many victims.
“From the overview to date, it’s obvious that previous investigations have been in depth and performed by specialist groups who sought charging choices from the CPS on two events. Nonetheless, we all know that contact with and assist for some victims on the time may have been improved. Solely after finishing this complete overview will we absolutely perceive what may have been completed in another way.”
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