An Australian nanny living in New York has filed a civil lawsuit accusing a married Qatari prince of raping, repeatedly harassing, staling and ultimately firing her after she rejected his sexual advances.
According to the 16-page complaint filed on Wednesday at Manhattan Supreme Court, Charlie McKenna’s employer Saoud Al Thani, showed up naked in her bed while she was traveling with the family to Doha, Qatar, in January 2016 and forced himself on her.
Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com on Thursday allege that Ms McKenna, an Australian native who has been working in childcare for more than 15 years, was able to secretly take a picture of a nude Al Thani before he sexually assaulted her.
Qatari prince Saoud Al Thani and his wife, who own a luxury apartment at this exclusive Park Avenue address, are being sued by a former nanny accusing the man of raping her
According to the lawsuit, in 2013, the Al Thani family, described in the complaint as ‘extremely wealthy and powerful couple,’ hired McKenna through a London-based recruitment agency specializing in childcare.
After obtaining a visa in Qatar, McKenna arrived in New York in 2014 and began working for Saoud al Thani and his wife, Hessa, who is a member of the royal family of Qatar, at the family’s apartment at 610 Park Avenue, formerly the site of the Mayfair Hotel.
The elegant, European-style building dating back to 1925 was converted into a luxury condominium in 1997 by President Donald Trump’s company, The Trump Organization, and Colony Capital.
The Al Thanis’ unit, according to the real estate site Zillow.com, is a 4,400 square-foot property that boasts four bedrooms, five baths, a formal dining room that sits 12, a chef’s kitchen and a library. The couple is believed to have purchased the apartment for $15million in 2010.
McKenna’s complain says that despite having little contact with Saoud Al Thani in the first months of her employment, in January 2014 he sent her a text message that consisted of a kissing emoji.
Princely property: The Al Thanis’ home is a 4,400 square-foot property that boasts four bedrooms, five baths and a formal dining room that sits 12
King’s ransom: The couple is believed to have purchased the apartment for $15million in 2010
The nanny did not respond to the text, and the next day her employer wrote to her claiming the emoji was sent to her by mistake.
The lawsuit claims that after a prolonged lull, Saoud renewed his electronic communication with his children’s caretaker in March 2015 while the family were vacationing in Cancun, Mexico, by allegedly sending her 20 texts one night through WhastApp while his wife was asleep. McKenna did not respond to the messages.
After spending a month in December 2015 in her naive Australia, McKenna again traveled to Doha, Qatar, to renew her visa.
Upon her arrival in the country, which controlled by her employers’ family, McKenna’s passport was allegedly confiscated and she was taken to stay at a hotel tied to the Al Thani clan.
The lawsuit claims that when on January 14, 2016, McKenna returned from a shopping trip at around 3.30pm, she entered her room to find Saoud Al Thani ‘completely naked, lying on her bed.’
McKenna allegedly asked her married boss to put his clothes back on and leave, but Al Thani ‘refused and forced himself onto McKenna, raping her,’ the court filing reads.
McKenna told her mother about the alleged rape but did not go to the local authorities because ‘Doha is the capital city ruled by the Al Thani royal Family and her passport had already been confiscated from her.’
The complaint goes on to say that the plaintiff ‘did not feel safe reporting the incident to anyone in Doha,’ and for the remainder of her stay there she allegedly ‘feared for her safety.’
When McKenna returned to the US later that month, Saoud allegedly continued harassing the au pare by stalking and texting her, ordering his wife to first fire, then rehire her, ‘as a means of control,’ according to the suit.
During a family trip to New Paltz, New York, in April 2016, which took place while Hessa Al Thani was away, Saoud allegedly walked into the nanny’s hotel room while she was in the shower and insisted that she come out of the bathroom so he could ‘spend some time with her and dance with her,’ according to the woman’s civil complaint.
McKenna locked herself in the bathroom and refused to come out. She only emerged after a fire warden, who entered the room because of smoke coming from McKenna’s fireplace, removed Saoud from the premises.
The lawsuit also accuses Hessa Al Thani of denying McKenna’s request to seek medical attention for a spinal injury for two months, which eventually required surgery.
When the family rented a home in Connecticut and invited McKenna to stay with them so she could look after their children, the caretaker refused, and instead opted to commute each day from New York.
Meanwhile, Saoud allegedly continued pursuing the nanny by repeatedly coming over to her home unannounced.
In one instance detailed in the lawsuit, the Qatari prince allegedly arrived outside McKenna’s residence and began banging on her door. When she did not answer, the married man allegedly sent her ‘countless threatening text messages.’
On another occasion, the prince allegedly texted McKenna, who had a boyfriend, a photo of his erect penis. Then during a trip to the Breakers resort in Florida in March 2017, Saoud allegedly entered the nanny’s hotel room and tried to kiss her, but she rejected him and began screaming.
‘Saoud tried to quiet her and then confessed his love to McKenna,’ the complaint reads.
On September 2, after McKenna refused to travel to Dona with the Al Thanis, she was fired.
The lawsuit accuses Saoud of battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and breach of contract, and seeks punitive damages to be determined at trial.
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