Mohamed Al Fayed ‘punished’ his victims for resisting his attacks by publicly humiliating them, even throwing a lobster at a woman in front of the most important guests on his yacht.
The former Harrods boss, who died in August last year aged 94, was this week exposed as a serial rapist accused of abusing at least 37 women.
One of his victims, who worked as his personal assistant between 2007 and 2009, said he expected her to entertain celebrities on his superyacht despite his abuse.
The 42-year-old, known only as Gemma, said he humiliated her in front of three A-list celebrities on the multi-million dollar ship while it was docked in Monaco.
“He threw a lobster at me because I didn’t talk. He said, ‘Why don’t you talk?'” she explained.
Mohamed Al Fayed threatened to throw a lobster at one of his victims in front of A-list guests on his yacht
Three of Al Fayed’s accusers, Katherine, Lindsay Mason and Gemma. The former Harrods boss, who died this year aged 94, is accused of abusing at least 37 women
An employee, known only as Gemma, said Al Fayed humiliated her in front of three well-known celebrities on the multi-million pound ship when it was moored in Monaco
The woman recalls another incident in St. Tropez, when he demanded she carry his bags and called her a “f****** donkey.”
“It was humiliating, it was part of his game,” she added. “It depended on whether you could turn down his advances. If you could, you knew you were in for a hard day of humiliation. Sometimes you had to sit at the back of the room… he had that look, an Al Fayed look when you knew you were in trouble.”
She added that when the tycoon had successfully abused her, he would shower her with perfume or cashmere scarves. She also described how she feared he would attack her at night after hiding the key to her room on the superyacht.
She also said that his security gave her some chopsticks and a piece of cloth to hold her door shut. ‘I went to them crying and said, “Help, he’s trying to get into my room,” and they gave me some chopsticks and a piece of cloth and told me to put it under the door.
“It seems strange now, but it actually worked when he tried to get in that night,” she recalls.
The woman claims the abuse eventually culminated in a rape at Villa Windsor in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne after Al Fayed entered her room while she was sleeping.
“I was lying face down on the bed and he was pressing against me,” she said, adding that he told her to wash herself with Dettol after the attack.
Gemma and two other victims who spoke to the Mail said the businessman took their passports when they were travelling so they could not escape.
They said they were used as arm candy at A-list events and one said he once had to perform a fashion show for the late tycoon’s guests.
The women also said he used his son Dodi’s luxury apartment in Paris to target young victims, despite his lavish mansion and the Ritz Hotel – which he owned – being nearby.
Lindsay Mason, 55, who worked as a PA for Al Fayed in 1989, says he brutally tried to rape her at the French home.
Some victims who spoke to the Mail said Al Fayed would hold their passports to prevent them from escaping during their journey.
Mohamed Al Fayed pictured at the unveiling of the Dodi Al Fayed and Diana Memorial at Harrods
Dodi is believed to have had a romance with Princess Diana on the same property, with the pair said to have gone there on the night of their fatal car crash in 1997. Ms Mason told how she was violently attacked in the apartment, which she said had a maze of doors, after she flew there on his private jet with three celebrities.
“I went there one night and there was no one else there,” she said. “I remember a lot of doors being locked behind you.
“They said it was to protect us, but I know now it was to prevent us from escaping.”
The then 20-year-old suffered several injuries when she
to repel Al Fayed
and locked himself in one of the many bedrooms.
Another victim, Katherine, who was fired after fighting off one of his attacks, described how the businessman humiliated her at work by ripping open her blouse.
Al Fayed also forced her to have her lips waxed and her hair straightened because he “hated” her brown, curly hair.