They said they had sought to settle claims “in the quickest way possible” since “new information came to light” in 2023.
Lawyers for the dozens of female complainants say that it was “inconceivable” Harrods would not have previously been aware of the allegations, and argue the owners would have done due diligence checks when it bought the business in 2010.
Dean Armstrong KC, one of the barristers representing alleged victims, said he was “at a loss” as to what the new information Harrods received in 2023 may have been.
In a BBC interview on Saturday, he argued that the new owners – who bought Harrods in 2010 – “either didn’t know [about the allegations] – which I find very difficult to accept – or refused to acknowledge that there was this background of sexual misconduct”.
He also said his team had 37 clients, but that the number of people who had contacted them with claims about Fayed was approaching 150.
Lawyers allege Fayed’s assaults occurred around the world – including in the US, Canada, France, Malaysia and Dubai.
“It’s very much a global case, it’s not just the UK. It happened all over the world,” another lawyer, Bruce Drummond, told the BBC.
For Catherine, she says her experience took place in Harrods’ flagship store in London.
When she told her line manager about her incident, it was dismissed – and she regards it as one example of a wider culture of “collusion” at Harrods which enabled Fayed’s behaviour.
“I explained to [my line manager] what happened… and he just completely kind of brushed it off and was kind of like ‘oh you know, that’s just what he’s like’,” she told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme.
She had been “in a very junior role” when one weekend she was told to bring store musicians up to Fayed’s office, after which he requested her immediate return.
“So then I went back up and we went into a little room at the back, just him and I,” she said.
Fayed invited her to take a job in his office, she said – an offer she turned down because it was not in her area of expertise.
“He then held my hand and asked if I had a boyfriend and I sort of politely laughed and said yes.
“And he said, ‘No, you don’t have a boyfriend, I’m your boyfriend you don’t need that donkey’ – which was strange and obviously I’m more and more uncomfortable by this point.”
She said Fayed then kissed her on the forehead, told her to think about the job and handed her £300 in cash – which she returned shortly after along with a formal rejection of the post.
“He kissed me on the forehead. I know a lot of people have mentioned this whole thing about this fatherly approach but I have boundaries. It was horrible, and you know, holding my hand, being in very close proximity, was not normal,” she said.
She says she contacted the BBC this week to add to the weight of accusations against Fayed.
More than 20 women told the BBC the businessman sexually assaulted or raped them while they worked at Harrods luxury department store in London.
Mr Armstrong said his legal team was “going to reach a lot more” than they already had given the international nature of the allegations against Fayed.
He said Fayed liked to associate with “what he perceived to be the upper echelons of society” – including celebrities, footballers and politicians – adding: “The scale of this is likely to increase, but the impact of this [on society as a whole] is likely to be much, much bigger.”
Catherine said she felt her experience compared to the rape allegations “feels like absolutely nothing – but I think it’s important in kind of building up that evidence of a pattern of behaviour and culture.”
She condemned the workplace environment at Harrods which she said had allowed such actions to regularly happen – claims that have been rejected by the department store. Harrods was owned by Fayed from 1985 until 2010 and is now under new ownership – which said this week the company operated differently to how it had under Fayed.
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