Fayed survivors seek ‘conversation’ with PM as Met widens inquiry

Survivors who say they were abused by Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for a “meaningful conversation” with Keir Starmer after the Metropolitan police revealed that they had questioned three women in relation to allegations of human trafficking and facilitating rape.

The Observer understands that Starmer has agreed to meet with Fayed survivors but that a date has not been set.

“We don’t want this to just be performative and a PR stunt,” said Shanta Sundarason, who was assaulted by Fayed in the 1990s while working at Harrods. Sundarason is part of No One Above, an advocacy group founded by Fayed’s survivors.

“We have asked for an independent assessment of whether what the Met is looking at will be wide enough to cover the scope of the crimes that have been reported to them,” said another member of the group, who uses the pseudonym Isabella.

In a statement on Friday, the Met said the three women interviewed under caution were aged in their 40s, 50s and 60s. The women were questioned over aiding and abetting rape and sexual assault, assisting the commission of sexual offences and human trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The extent of Fayed’s alleged crimes while he was owner of a range of properties and businesses, including Harrods, the Ritz Paris and Fulham football club, first came to light in a 2024 BBC documentary, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods. Since then, hundreds of women have come forward with claims of abuse and trafficking, both domestic and international, by Fayed, his family and the alleged enablers in his employment. The Met said 154 women had reported allegations of sexual assault, rape, sexual exploitation and human trafficking involving Fayed, who died in 2023.

Survivors have long been calling for the Met to investigate their cases as evidence of a vast trafficking network that rivalled that of Jeffrey Epstein in scope. An investigation by The Observer published last month reported that some victims are now pinning their hopes on a French investigation by a specialist trafficking body after years of frustration at the Met’s handling of their cases.

In the statement, Commander Angela Craggs of the Met said: "Victims remain at the centre of this investigation. While Al Fayed is no longer alive to face prosecution, we have always been determined to bring anyone who is suspected to have played a part in his offending to justice.”

Joanna Brittan told The Observer last week that she had reported trafficking allegations relating to Fayed to the Met in 2017, when he was still alive. She is still trying to find out what became of that report.

Emma Jones, a partner at the law firm Leigh Day, which represents 41 Fayed victims in the UK, said in a statement: “We welcome the Met’s decision to widen its investigation to include trafficking... However, we are concerned to note that only three suspects have been interviewed under caution.”

Jones expressed surprise that “all of the suspects are female” based on the accounts her clients had shared and “information in the public domain”.

She added: “We hope that this is very much the tip of the iceberg in relation to individuals the Met has on its radar."

Speaking to The Observer last month, Rachael Louw and Kristina Svensson both shared details of being subjected to invasive and possibly illegal medical examinations linked to their employment at Harrods and the Ritz Paris respectively.

Louw and Svensson’s French lawyers from the firm Baro Alto described these examinations as essentially clearing the women to be trafficked by Fayed and his brother, Salah, who died in 2010. Louw says that while employed as a personal assistant to Salah, she was flown out of Luton airport on a Harrods jet to Monaco, where he tried to pressure her into sex with him and a range of wealthy older men. She says Salah had previously drugged and assaulted her in his apartment at Park Lane in central London. She was later assaulted by Fayed when she returned to work at Harrods.

Louw said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the latest developments, though she wanted men held accountable too. “I would really like to see the top branches cut down first,” Louw said. “There were men and women that were enablers and co-conspirators. We do not want this to turn into another Ghislaine Maxwell situation.”

Photograph by Chris Young/AFP via Getty Images