More than 400 alleged victims have so far contacted the legal team working on a case against Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, who has been accused of sexual abuse and rape, lawyer Dean Armstrong said Thursday.

A BBC documentary in September revealed that Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, sexually abused female staff at his Harrods department store in London, forced them to undergo medical examinations and -threatened consequences if they tried to complain.

“The scale of the abuses committed by Al Fayed and facilitated by those around him unfortunately continues to grow,” Armstrong told a news conference in London.

Al Fayed has always denied similar allegations raised by other reports before his death.

When asked for a response, Harrods referred Reuters to its previous statements about the allegations, in which it apologized, said it was “appalled” by them and launched a lawsuit against all current or former Harrods employees who I want to claim compensation. .

Another lawyer, Bruce Drummond, said the more than 400 claims were made by women from all over the world, mostly from Britain, but also from the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Spain, South Africa and other countries.

“This, in our view, is abuse on an industrial scale,” Drummond said, adding that the abuse took place “within the walls of Harrods” but also at other locations linked to Al Fayed’s business empire, such as Fulham Football Club, the Ritz Paris and his Surrey estate.

The victims included the daughter of a former US ambassador to Britain and the daughter of a well-known soccer player, Drummond said, without giving any names.

The BBC documentary said Harrods did not intervene and helped cover up allegations of abuse during his detention.

Lawyers have criticized the compensation scheme run by Harrods, saying some of the victims do not feel comfortable contacting Harrods directly for compensation because that is where the abuse took place.

Drummond said some senior staff from the Al Fayed era were still working at Harrods.

The Financial Times reported last week that four alleged victims had opted out of the Harrods compensation scheme over their concerns about potential conflicts of interest and poor communication.

Several media organizations had reported allegations of sexual abuse against Al Fayed before the BBC documentary, including Vanity Fair in 1995, ITV in 1997 and Channel 4 in 2017. Lawyers said in September that many of the women felt able to speak out only in public in the BBC report. after he died last year.

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