A woman who alleges she was raped by her former employer Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian billionaire who owned Harrods for more than 25 years, has called for changes to be made within HR departments to ensure a safe environment at work.
Gemma, who was one of Mr Al Fayed’s personal assistants between 2007 and 2009 and worked for the office of his charitable foundation, alleged that Mr Al Fayed raped her during a trip to Paris.
More than 20 female former employees have spoken to the BBC as part of an investigation, coming forward with allegations of assault and physical violence at properties in London and Paris.
Five women alleged they had been raped by Mr Al Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94, the broadcaster reported.
Gemma is one of 37 women represented by a legal team which held a press conference on Friday – and more than 100 other women have come forward since the BBC aired a documentary on Thursday evening, barrister Bruce Drummond said.
Asked what she would like to achieve through the process, Gemma said: “I think certainly that HR laws and the protection around HR is re-evaluated, because I think for me, one of the biggest downfalls of all of this was the HR department.
“They never investigated him, they never checked in on my welfare, and I think that’s really important.
“You know, if a company’s got a safe environment to work, then nothing should go wrong. And that’s not what was provided at Harrods.”
Speaking of the alleged abuse in Paris, Gemma said: “He assaulted me in the most vile way, and he acted like nothing had happened.”
Gemma said that was when she decided to leave, adding: “Up to that point, I’d obviously put up with nearly two years of his harassment and grooming.”
She said she was signed off from work with stress, then sent a letter of resignation on the grounds of sexual harassment.
Mr Al Fayed then “harassed” Gemma for the next week with phone calls and text messages, she said.
And she then engaged with a lawyer to help her leave the company and said she was made to “sign an NDA and shred all of my evidence”.
Gemma had a Dictaphone which she recorded Mr Al Fayed on, and she had to destroy it but found transcripts of the recordings in her email sent box years later, she said.
She said: “I think that I’d got to the point where I felt that I needed to record him, because I’d already planned my escape, but I felt so threatened in leaving that I needed something to protect me, and I thought if I just leave and tell people what happened, no-one will believe me, and even if they do, they’ll probably protect him.
“So I felt like having something to protect me was the safest route, and really he validated my fear because he harassed me when I did leave.”
Gemma said she only came to terms with how “horrific” her experiences were when she started going through the process with the legal team.
She added: “It’s only this process where I’ve had to kind of revisit and actually, as a maturer woman in her 40s, I’m looking back at that 24-year-old, and it makes me so cross, because, me now would not stand for it, I’d be screaming from the rooftops.”
And watching the documentary on Thursday evening was the first time Gemma had heard the stories of the other alleged victims, she said.
“I’d never heard their names. I didn’t know who they were. They never worked at the same time. Yet, we’re all saying exactly the same things,” she said.
Gemma added: “It’s made me feel like I can start to heal now, because I’m not the only one. I’m not this freak that this happened to, and I did something wrong. It was him.”
Harrods previously said it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and said it had set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
