ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Rape and sexual assault at one of London's most famous addresses. Dozens of former employees of Harrods, which describes itself as the world's leading luxury department store, are accusing their late boss of being a monster who prayed on female staff for a quarter century. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from London.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Harrods, Europe's biggest department store. Harrods, where they measure selling space in acres, not square feet. Harrods...
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Harrods is where Russian oligarchs shop, tourists gawk and 15 million people visit annually. Its late owner, the Egyptian-born billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed, was a jetsetter. He also owned the Ritz in Paris. He hobnobbed with royals, even made it into "The Crown" on Netflix.
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SALIM DAW: (As Mohamed Al-Fayed) With your help, I will become that rare thing - a British gentleman.
FRAYER: It was his son, Dodi Fayed, who dated Princess Diana and died with her in that 1997 car crash. For years, there was a memorial statue of the couple and a condolence book near one of the Harrods escalators. But after Al-Fayed Sr.'s death last year at age 94, old accusations began to emerge. They resurfaced first in a BBC documentary that aired last night and today at a news conference in London.
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DEAN ARMSTRONG: Mohamed Al-Fayed was a monster.
FRAYER: Dean Armstrong is a lawyer representing dozens of accusers, including at least five alleging rape.
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ARMSTRONG: He was a monster enabled by a system, a system that pervaded Harrods.
FRAYER: One of the accusers also spoke, identifying herself only as Natacha, one of Al-Fayed's personal assistants. She described being summoned to the boss' office.
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NATACHA: And these private meetings turned into more a forced kiss - his hands gripping your face to his lips or pulling you down on his lap, where his hands were free to explore.
FRAYER: She didn't give her surname. In the U.K., victims often are not identified publicly. But she appeared before all the TV cameras, alongside celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who's also represented accusers in high-profile #MeToo cases in America.
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GLORIA ALLRED: Sexual misconduct was constant and repetitive and went on for 25 years that he owned Harrods.
FRAYER: The lawyers say they still have a case against Harrods itself. Its new Qatari owners told the BBC they're utterly appalled by what happened before their time and have a settlement process in place for alleged victims. And there has been no comment from the Al-Fayed family. Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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