Ontario woman recounts 'frightening' moment with Harrods's owner Mohamed Al-Fayed
CBC
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it
For Amy, working at the luxury London department store Harrods was a dream that soon became a nightmare.
The Peterborough, Ont., native is one of dozens of women requesting anonymity after accusing Mohamed Al-Fayed — the late Egyptian entrepreneur and billionaire who owned Harrods for 25 years — of sexual abuse.
Al-Fayed is alleged to have groped, kissed and, in some cases, raped at least 37 women.
CBC News has agreed not to publish Amy's surname.
A recent BBC News investigation has produced a podcast and documentary exploring these accusations and the "unsafe system of work" Harrods maintained, according to Dean Armstrong, one of the lawyers in the documentary and a member of the survivors' legal team.CBC News has learned at least three of the complainants are Canadian, the youngest of whom was only 16 at the time.
In 1993, Amy, then fresh out of university, participated in a student work-abroad program that found her selling handbags on the shop floor of Harrods.
"It was full of luxury and wonders and beauty. It was a dream, a dream come true," she said.
Amy spoke with CBC News and other Canadian media in London on Friday, recounting her time at the "very glamorous" store.
It wasn't long after she started there that she was approached by human resources and told that Al-Fayed wanted to meet her. She was also instructed to "look good for him."
That meeting won her a spot working in Al-Fayed's office upstairs along with a select group of other women. She says this was one of "the first phases of isolation.
Al-Fayed became "very possessive," she said, and told her: "You have to be where I tell you to be, when I tell you to be there."
Amy says she was often invited on business trips, during which her passport was taken and she would have only have "the clothes on her back" as she was shuttled away with Al-Fayed.
She says she was never told when they would return nor given access to a phone.
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