The youngest son of Mohamed Al Fayed has revealed he ran away to sea to keep away from his father’s grip – regardless of being poised to take over Harrods.
Omar Al Fayed, 37, stated he fled to a analysis ship on the age of simply 22 – leaving his billionaire father satisfied he had been kidnapped.
He joined the crew of the Heraclitus, a ship that was constructed within the Seventies by Californian environmentalists, and had carried out analysis on oceans internationally.
Omar informed The Sunday Instances: ‘I informed him precisely the place I used to be going. I simply do not assume he believed me. And I used to be utterly out of contact in the midst of the ocean.’
‘I caught it out a Harrods for so long as I might. I actually jumped ship. It was not only a cultural upbringing, generational factor.
‘It genuinely was a private distinction in our method to actuality.’
Police now imagine Al Fayed, who died final yr aged 94, might have raped and abused greater than 111 ladies over practically 4 many years.
This is able to make the billionaire Harrods tycoon certainly one of Britain’s most infamous intercourse offenders.
Mohamed Al Fayed, who might have raped and abused greater than 111 ladies over practically 4 many years, is pictured together with his son Omar
Mohamed Al Fayed’s son Omar has spoken out on the rape allegations towards his father (pictured)
Omar Al Fayed together with his father Mohamed in 2021. Omar beforehand stated he liked his father very a lot and ‘admired his fearlessness’
5 courageous survivors alleged in a BBC documentary that they needed to barricade doorways with chairs to get away from former Harrods boss Al Fayed.
Former staff stated he would fly them to Paris underneath the guise of a piece journey, take away their passports and put them in resort rooms with out locks.
Chilling claims say he monitored them with CCTV in their very own properties, telephone tapping and he threatened their households in the event that they ever dared to talk out in regards to the abuse.
BBC journalists trying into his predatory historical past gathered the tales of greater than 20 ladies who stated they’d been abused by him, and ‘as much as 200’ extra have come ahead since.
Omar, a lifelong environmentalist, has now stated he believes enterprise and trade treats the planet like his father handled ladies.
He additionally counseled the bravery of the ladies who got here ahead accusing Al Fayed of sexual assault.
‘I’m horrified and deeply involved by the allegations just lately delivered to mild towards my late father,’ he stated when the allegations emerged in September.
‘The extent and express nature of the allegations are surprising and has thrown into query, the loving reminiscence I had of him’, Sky Information reported.
‘How this matter might have been hid for therefore lengthy and in so some ways, raises additional disturbing questions.’
The billionaire Harrods tycoon, who died final yr aged 94, was certainly one of Britain’s most infamous intercourse offenders
Omar, centre, together with his father Mohamed and sister Camilla at a style present in New York
He stated that he liked his father ‘very a lot’ and he was a ‘great dad’.
However he added ‘that facet of our relationship… doesn’t blind me from an goal evaluation of circumstances’.
He stated he stood ‘unequivocally in help of any reputable investigation into these allegations.
‘I’ll proceed to help the rules of fact, justice, accountability, and equity, no matter the place that journey might lead. Nobody is above the legislation.’
Omar, the youngest of Fayed’s 4 youngsters together with his second spouse, Finnish mannequin Heini Wathen, beforehand conceded that his father was an ‘old-school chauvinist’.
He informed pals: ‘Maybe he was like an older model of Donald Trump.’
Michael Ward, managing director of Harrods, stated in an announcement that it’s clear Al Fayed ‘presided over a poisonous tradition of secrecy, intimidation, worry of repercussion and sexual misconduct’.
Mr Ward, who labored for Al Fayed for 4 years, stated he was ‘not conscious of his criminality and abuse’ and described it as a ‘shameful interval within the enterprise’ historical past’.
He stated an unbiased evaluate was underway into points arising from the allegations and that he had ‘offered all the data I’ve to make sure my very own conduct might be reviewed alongside that of my colleagues’.
