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Home / World

Mohamed Al-Fayed 'showered 15yo girl with gifts then tried to kiss her' it is claimed

By Sam Greenhill
Daily Mail·
6 Mar, 2018 12:25 AM4 mins to read

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Billionaire Al-Fayed, 89, who owns the Paris Ritz Hotel and is a former owner of Fulham Football Club, was reported by Channel 4 News to have denied 'false' allegations. Photo / via Channel 4

Billionaire Al-Fayed, 89, who owns the Paris Ritz Hotel and is a former owner of Fulham Football Club, was reported by Channel 4 News to have denied 'false' allegations. Photo / via Channel 4

More women came forward last night to accuse former Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual harassment.

The three new women, whose claims were broadcast last night on the UK's Channel 4 News, spoke out after a Dispatches documentary last December in which three other women made similar allegations, the href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5465483/Three-women-accuse-Mohamed-Al-Fayed-sexual-harassment.html" target="_blank">Daily Mail reported.

Billionaire Al-Fayed, 89, who owns the Paris Ritz Hotel and is a former owner of Fulham Football Club, was reported by Channel 4 News to have denied "false" allegations made by a woman whose complaint to the police when she was a teenager was dropped.

Last night the complainant, identified as "Woman A", told Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman she visited Harrods with her mother in 2007 when Al-Fayed offered her a job when she was a teenager.

She said: "It was so surreal. My meetings would be often, once a week in his offices, upstairs in Harrods, top floor." She said the tycoon gave her £300 ($575) in £50 notes and showered her with gifts including perfume and a designer handbag.

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After a few months, she said he came into the boardroom one day and tried to kiss her and make unwanted advances.

Woman A said she stopped eating and ran away from home, but eventually confided in her parents. They took her to the police. After a thorough investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service decided the evidence was conflicting and not sufficiently reliable, and dropped the case. Al-Fayed has always maintained his innocence.

Channel 4 News also spoke to "Woman B", now in her 40s, who started working at Harrods a quarter of a century ago. She said Al-Fayed made her feel uncomfortable during a business trip to his Ritz hotel in Paris.

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She said: "We all went to have dinner in the restaurant … he made a few comments about sex and boyfriends and things.

"He wanted to dance with each of us. I danced with him. I felt really uncomfortable ...

"He was kissing my face. He asked if I liked his kisses. He kept squeezing me and kissing my forehead, and even at one point he kissed my nose. And I remember feeling very uncomfortable and a bit frozen."

Channel 4 News said Woman B kept a diary of every incident.

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Reading from her diary, she said: "I pulled away. He laughed. He could see my discomfort. He said 'don't you want to have sex with me?' And I said 'no'. He said 'not now maybe one day'. And I said 'no, never'."

The third woman said she too had rebuffed the billionaire's unwanted advances.

Woman C, who worked for him a decade ago, remembers she was made to undergo a full medical check, including a test for sexually transmitted diseases.

She claimed Al-Fayed began asking her to sleep with him and groped her breasts. She said: "He would kind of tug and make a joke like 'what you wearing underneath this?' and he would try and look and his hands would go down your top and ... that was it and he would start fondling, and I would move away."

She went to see a lawyer and was advised to keep a diary.

According to Channel 4 News, Woman C sued him for sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination and was made an offer of £60,000 ($115,000). She accepted the offer and has not spoken about it publicly until now.

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Last December, Cheska Hill-Wood claimed she was 17 when the billionaire coaxed her into a swimsuit and tried to kiss her.

And two other women alleged on Channel 4 Dispatches that the magnate tried to persuade them to have sex.

Last night Al-Fayed's office did not respond to requests for comment. Channel 4 News it had put the allegations to his lawyer who told the programme the claims concerning Woman A were 'false' and that Mr Al-Fayed was unable to comment further on the other allegations in the report.

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