London, United Kingdom:

Three former Harrods women have accused the brother of its late boss Mohamed Al-Fayed of sexual assault, following hundreds of similar claims against the London luxury store’s former owner, the BBC reported on Thursday.

They say the late Salah Fayed assaulted them while he co-owned the shop with his brother, the radio station said.

The women claimed they were abused in London, the south of France and Monaco between 1989 and 1997.

The report comes after a series of complaints in recent weeks by hundreds of women against the former Egyptian owner of Harrods and Fulham Football Club, Mohamed Al-Fayed, of sexual assault, including rape.

Salah Fayed died in 2010 and Mohamed Al-Fayed died last year aged 94.

One of the three women behind the latest allegations, named Helen, who waived her right to anonymity, told the BBC she had been working for the retailer for two years when Mohamed Al-Fayed raped her in 1989. during a business trip to Dubai. .

He then offered her a job as a personal assistant to his brother Salah, who she said continued to drug and rape her while she was unconscious.

Mohamed Al-Fayed “shared me with his brother,” she said.

She said he remained silent about the experience after signing a non-disclosure agreement, a document the BBC reported seeing.

The second woman said Salah Fayed abused her during a trip to Monaco, while the third woman, who was hired aged 19 in 1997, said she was sexually assaulted in his Monaco apartment .

Contacted by AFP, Harrods said it “supports the courage of these women to come forward” and encourages survivors to “come forward and make their claims” to the company, which offers compensation and counseling support.

“We also hope that they are looking at all avenues that are right for them in their pursuit of justice, whether it’s Harrods, the police or the Fayed family and estate,” the company said.

On Tuesday, the New York Times published the claims of a victim who accuses another brother of Mohamed Al-Fayed, Ali, 80, of knowing about the “trafficking” of women.

The allegations have grown since the airing of a BBC documentary in September detailing multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault by Mohamed Al-Fayed.

The Justice for Harrods Survivors group said it had received more than 420 questions, mainly about the store but also about Fulham Football Club, the Ritz hotel in Paris and other Fayed entities.

London’s Metropolitan Police said earlier this month that they are “actively reviewing 21 allegations reported to the Metropolitan Police prior to the death of Mohamed Al-Fayed… to determine whether further investigative steps are available or whether there are we could have done better”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)