Mohamed Al Fayed ‘punished’ his victims for resisting his attacks by publicly humiliating them – even throwing a lobster at one woman in front of A-list guests on his yacht.
The former Harrods boss, who died aged 94 in August last year, was this week exposed as a serial sex attacker who is accused of abusing at least 37 women.
One of his victims, who worked as his personal assistant between 2007 and 2009, said he would expect her to entertain A-listers on his superyacht despite his abuse.
The 42-year-old, known only as Gemma, said he had humiliated her in front of three well-known celebrities on the multi-million-pound vessel when it was moored in Monaco.
‘He threw a lobster at me because I had not spoken. He said: “Why are you not talking?”’ She explained.
Mohamed Al Fayed threatened threw a lobster at one of his victims in front of A-list guests on his yacht
Three of Al Fayed’s accusers, Katherine, Lindsay Mason and Gemma. The former Harrods boss, who died this year aged 94, is accused of abusing at least 37 women
One employee, known only as Gemma, said Al Fayed had humiliated her in front of three well-known celebrities on the multi-million-pound vessel when it was moored in Monaco
The woman recalled another incident in St Tropez when he demanded that she carry his bags and called her a ‘f****** donkey’.
‘It was humiliating, it was part of his game,’ she added. ‘It would depend on if you managed to push his advances away. If you had, you knew you were in for a rough day of humiliation. Sometimes you would be made to sit at the back of the room… he had this look, an Al Fayed look when you knew you were in trouble.’
She added that when the tycoon was able to successfully abuse her, he would then shower her with gifts of perfume or cashmere scarfs, and described how she feared he would attack her in the night after he hid the key to her room on the superyacht.
She also said his security had handed her some chopsticks and a bit of cloth to wedge her door shut. ‘I went crying to them and said “help, he’s been trying to get in my room”, and they gave me some chopsticks and a cloth and told me to jam it under the door.
‘It seems bizarre now but it actually worked when he tried to get in that night,’ she recalled.
The woman alleges the abuse culminated in her being raped at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne after Al Fayed entered her room as she slept.
‘I was kind of face down on the bed and he just pressed himself on me,’ she said, adding that he told her to wash herself with Dettol after the attack.
Gemma and two other victims who spoke to the Mail said the businessman would take their passports away when travelling to prevent them from escaping.
They described being used as ‘arm candy’ at A-lister events and, on one occasion, one described having to put on a fashion show for the late tycoon’s guests.
The women also said he used his son Dodi’s luxury Paris apartment to target young victims, despite his lavish mansion and the Ritz – which he owned – being nearby.
Lindsay Mason, 55, who worked for Al Fayed in 1989 as a PA, said he brutally attempted to rape her at the French residence.
Some victims who spoke to the Mail said that Al Fayed would withhold their passports to prevent them escaping when travelling
Mohamed Al Fayed pictured during the Dodi Al Fayed and Diana Memorial unveiling at Harrods
It is believed Dodi romanced Princess Diana at the same property. The couple were said to have been heading there on the night of their deadly 1997 car crash. Miss Mason told how she was violently attacked in the flat which she said had a maze of doors after being flown there on his private jet with three celebrities.
‘I went there for one night and no one else was there,’ she said. ‘I remember there were many doors that locked behind you.
‘They said it was to keep us safe, but I know now it was to stop us from escaping.’
The then 20-year-old sustained several injuries as she managed
to ward Al Fayed off before
barricading herself in one of the many bedrooms.
Another victim, Katherine, who was sacked after she repelled one of his attacks, described how the businessman would humiliate her at work by ripping open her blouse.
Al Fayed would also force her to have her lip waxed and her hair straightened because he ‘hated’ her brown, curly hair.
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