Al-Fayed

Again the police have absolutely failed a group of mostly young woman.

How on earth did this man get away with raping and attacking these women over many years? After the Jimmy Savile revelations you would think the law could get its act together.

I’m not articulate enough to write down what I really feel about this low life scum bag. Money and power seem to go hand in hand with ‘getting away’ with almost anything.

Rant over.

I think a bit like Jimmy Savile it was an open secret among those who had to deal with Al-,Fayed that he was a dirty old man who liked young girls.

I heard the rumours many years ago when he was owner of Harrods. The daughter of a friend of my sister claimed that she had an unpleasant experience when he literally chased her round his office, she was something like 16 or 17 years old. Thankfully I don’t think anything serious happened.

And yeah, wealth undoubtedly helped to protect him

Money and power seem to go hand in hand with ‘getting away’ with almost anything.

Unfortunately, that pretty much sums it up. What needs to happen is for people to be held to account for all the blind eyes that are constantly being turned. If you knew about it but did nothing about it – leaving vulnerable people to their fate – then you’re complicit

Rumours have always been around him, Private Eye used to do a running theme about the ‘Phoney Pharaoh’, like many others of that ilk around at that time, he always seemed to be quite an odious muppet with a well paid PR team.

Money and power seem to go hand in hand with ‘getting away’ with almost anything.

When you’re so wealthy that any want is accommodated immediately; any moral handbrake that you may have had on even your basest desires must seem pointless and unnecessary. You desire it, therefore it must be given to you.  Money just takes care of it.

If i remember, i think his ‘wealth’ was always brought into question, from how he got the money to buy Harrods and the debt mountain that his ’empire’ was built on, not read that stuff in a while, but it sounded murkier the longer it went on.

After the Jimmy Savile revelations you would think the law could get its act together.

al-fayed was contemporaneous with Saville tho judging by much of that coverage. So the same system of omerta gave them both cover. (Saville only really exposed in 2012 posthumously)

Hopefully society today is better at not letting those types get away with it…. hopefully

I wonder if there’s a higher rate of sex pests among the money+power lot than the general population?

It’s either the availability heuristic at work here or men with a mixture of fame, power and money just don’t have a very good track record.

What needs to happen is for people to be held to account for all the blind eyes that are constantly being turned.

This always amazes me. I work for a large bank. If I turned a blind eye to what I knew was illegal activity, ie money laundering, id at best lose my job. At worst end up in jail.

Yet it appears rape isn’t treated as seriously..

Hopefully society today is better at not letting those types get away with it…. hopefully

I doubt it (edit, or at least it’s way off good enough?). A patriarchal system, the effect of money on people in these circles, the police/courts record on rape investigations and convictions, etc.

It doesn’t help the police if no one approaches them at the time with their accusations. He will have been well protected by the establishment and royal family  seem to like protecting dodgy evil people.

by the establishment and royal family  seem to like protecting dodgy evil people.

Eh..didn’t the royal family hate him..

i think his ‘wealth’ was always brought into question, from how he got the money to buy Harrods and the debt mountain that his ’empire’ was built on,

Yup, and he made his initial money working for a Saudi Arabian arms dealer. Everything about Mohammed Al-Fayed was dodgy.

Eh..didn’t the royal family hate him..

So much so that they wouldn’t allow him to have one of Her Britannic Majesty’s passports.

One day, the whole of this dodgy past will fully come to light. What we now know of certain individuals and what went on (Prince Andrew, Jimmy Saville and Al-Fayed etc) is certain to be the very tiniest tip of a large iceberg being enabled by an even larger network of others in positions of power in business, government and Royalty.

No surprise to a lot of people.

A friends partner told me years ago about what he was like.

She had a partime job at Harrods  when she was a student and made a point of never being alone on the floor when he was aroud.

Disgusting, odious little human,just like Trump and others they imagine they are untouchable.

@fasthaggis my aunt said the same – he wasn’t a pleasant man at all.

Seems like a lot of the blame for failing to prosecute should be with the CPS rather than police, a shambles regardless and anyone in any decision-making capacity related to this should have questions to answer.

Sleazy scumbag revealed to be sleazy scumbag shocker.

More confirmation that nothing useful to society ever got out of a Range Rover.

When the only witnesses to your crimes are your private security detail and the victim it’s really not that hard to get away with anything.

A moments pleasure for the ‘dirty old man’, turning into a possible lifetime of trauma for the victims.

I had the misfortune of visiting Harrods in the late 1990’s when Al-Fayed had turned the lower ground floor into a shrine to his son and Princess Diana, that prompted me to walk right out of the store. This oxygen thief got so many things wrong.

How these victims of people who are only found out after death, can find closure, it’s hard to say.

the establishment and royal family  seem to like protecting dodgy evil people.

Is an HR person, or solicitor, who knows or suspects what’s gone on and arranges a “pay off” and “NDA” that prevents* reporting it to the police guilty of an offence?  It seems that might amount to attempting to pervert the course of justice.  It’s only by making these third parties liable that we can stop such cases from being properly reported and investigated.

*I doubt any such agreement is enforcible but that shouldn’t matter to your intent by using it as a tool.

How on earth did this man get away with raping and attacking these women over many years?

The interwebs reckons at the time of his death he was worth an estimated ~$2 billion USD, Obviously he’d flogged the shop to Qatar by then.

Lets be honest (historically at least) very different laws seem to apply to the disgustingly wealthy, even if they’re not well liked by the establishment.  And I really don’t think that has changed as much as people might like to think…

I wonder if there’s a higher rate of sex pests among the money+power lot than the general population?

I honestly don’t think so. The money and fame just allows them better resources to cover it up. It depresses me a little, at times, how there appear to be so many men that just seem to feel that women are objects for their pleasure. Chattels. Lesser humans. Just look at most war situations: One of the first things that seems to happen is some soldiers feel it’s ok to just rape and abuse women and children. They don’t really have money or wealth. Afghanistan currently and the ruling Taliban. What a horrific place for women right now. Most of the civil wars and ethnic cleansing that went on across Africa. Rape, abuse and torture was there in abundance. And this is just scratching the surface.

I think that war is a fairly unique experience which brutalises people in a fairly unique way, it devalues the sanctity of human life. A man who has been forced to endlessly kill people he doesn’t know, and watch his own friends die next to him, is ess likely to see rape being wrong to quite the same level as a man who hasn’t been brutalised in this way.

For example I doubt that all the American GIs who raped Vietnamese girls were rapists before and after their stint in Vietnam.

I reckon scaled hits the nail on the head :

When the only witnesses to your crimes are your private security detail and the victim it’s really not that hard to get away with anything.

Greedy men with a sense of entitlement and financial fortunes will use the privileges they have in a way that other men simply can’t.

The easier it is to commit rape the more likely it is to occur.

It doesn’t help the police if no one approaches them at the time with their accusations

That was my understanding, I’ve not followed it closely but not seen a report that the assaults were reported to the Police, sadly.

I understand the reasons why that happens, and it’s totally wrong.

Not sure what the culture of silence/NDA solution is. If a woman who has been sexually assaulted doesn’t feel up to reporting it to the Police and going through the trauma of an investigation,  do you report it and put her in that position?

I had relatives at Stoke Mandeville who knew you didn’t want to be alone around Saville, but never reported him for his actions.

It’s tragic for the victims, and awful that these people are only being held to account after their death.

Al-fayed was contemporaneous with Saville tho judging by much of that coverage.

Was about to say the same myself, but Fayed only died last year – that’s 12 years after Saville. There was plenty of time for justice to be served – even if he wouldn’t have seen the sentence out.

I wonder how many more are hiding in plain sight for the lack of action……

His inappropriate behaviour towards young women/girls was in the public domain almost 30 years ago:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/al-fayed-accused-harrods-boss-rejects-charges-of-lechery-and-bugging-1289749.html

And to back up scaled’s comment:

“The whole thing was based on fear and intimidation,” said Francesca Betterman, Harrods’ former company solicitor. “Whenever he came to see me, he would have three of his bodyguards with him – ex-SAS or something – it was very frightening.”

It’s sad that like with US mass shootings, when you hear about it on the news it just doesn’t surprise you!

The old times were bad times, I just hope it stopped at some point…

 an even larger network of others in positions of power in business, government and Royalty.

I think people overestimate this supposed “network” and completely underestimate the importance of how much freedom decent lawyers and the ability to pay for them regardless can bring you. The royals hated Al Fayed, but they weren’t stupid enough to go toe-to-toe with him when his legal fund was as deep as theirs.

I think people overestimate this supposed “network” and completely underestimate the importance of how much freedom decent lawyers and the ability to pay for them regardless can bring you.

Deep pockets and the ability to hire people to find dirt and the gaps to avoid deeper scrutiny and then the ability to sue for libel at the drop of a hat are powerful tools.

Criminal justice may not be 2 tier (citation required), but civil litigation is absolutely 2 tier and that is what aids those who can afford it and those who manage to dodge the criminal element to silence critics.

@mrbadger said

Yet it appears rape isn’t treated as seriously

and I know this is a different case, but I was horrified this week to hear the mayor in the case in France of the man who drugged his wife for mass rape to be committed say this:

In an interview with the BBC, Bonnet said the case could have been far more serious. There were no children involved, no women were killed, the family will have a hard time but they can rebuild. After all, nobody died,” he told the broadcaster.

the mayor has since apologised, but it does make me feel that what mr badger said is depressingly spot on.

Yeah I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This bit in particular:

the family will have a hard time but they can rebuild.

Wtf?

NDAs should be null and void in cases like this, although the accepting of payments does muddy the water somewhat. It is just rich man to whom no one says no. Doing what he wants because no one will say no. Even if they do money will make it go away.
His henchmen, the legal teams and those who knew about it and facilitated the pressure put on these young women need to be prosecuted to the greatest extent of the law.

How on earth did this man get away with raping and attacking these women over many years?

“The whole thing was based on fear and intimidation,” said Francesca Betterman, Harrods’ former company solicitor. “Whenever he came to see me, he would have three of his bodyguards with him – ex-SAS or something – it was very frightening.”

This! Even victims who hadn’t actually been abused would be threatened by him saying they would never be able to work in London again. Even hints of threats to their families as well, I believe.
When an odious monster like him is rich enough even our Royal family would think twice about threatening him with legal action, who would ever think about trying to take him to court.

The old times were bad times, I just hope it stopped at some point…

wow

I may have missed something but didn’t they say some or all women were afraid to say anything until after his passing because he was so powerful that they feared the consequences. Again money can make anything happen both good and bad, lawyers overturning convictions for example etc etc…-

More accusations and allegations now regarding Fulham football ladies team.

‘His people’, meaning the ones in the know (body guards probably), need to face the consequences. Sad to think ‘some’ of our armed forces were paid to turn a blind eye, when protecting the monster.