Sex predator Mohamed Al Fayed faked having dementia in order to trick police into not prosecuting him over a raft of abuse allegations, his youngest son has claimed.
Omar Fayed, 37, insists the Harrods tycoon remained “sharp as a tack” but hoodwinked investigators into believing he was “mentally incapacitated” to prevent them probing the widespread sexual abuse that is now believed to have seen him raped and attack more than 100 women.
Last month the Metropolitan Police revealed 150 people have come to them since September, with 90 new victims identified.
The incidents span almost 40 years, according to Met records, from 1977 to 2014.
All those who allege the billionaire assaulted them are women, with the youngest victim aged just 13 at the time.
Now his son has said the Egyptian-born millionaire should have been prosecuted as if he were “a Nazi general” before his death at the age of 94 in 2023.
He previously called his father’s alleged crimes “horrifying”, bit has now admitted “relief” reports are “coming to light” as he confessed he “knew about the call girls”, but did not know the true extent of his father’s alleged offences.
The CEO said Al Fayed was let “off the hook” after individuals surrounding Al Fayed helped him avoid further police probing “on the grounds he was mentally incapacitated” and had dementia, but that when he returned to business affairs he was “as sharp as a tack”.
But his son now insists his father should have been held accountable “while he was still alive”.
He said: “If a Nazi general is found to have been hiding in the Algarve for the last 50 years then of course he should be tried.”
Investigators twice sent files for a charging decision to the Crown Prosecution Service – once in 2008 relating to three victims and again in 2015 linked to one other.
On another three occasions – in 2018, 2021 and 2023 – the CPS was asked for what is called early investigative advice but the matters were not pursued further by police.
Last month, the Metropolitan Police said it had launched an investigation into more than five people who may have “facilitated” his alleged crimes.
Omar, who resigned from Harrods in 2009, continued: “I am sad that victims of these horrific alleged crimes were not able to address them in a timely manner. Maybe then they could have had some form of closure. There might have been some comeuppance, consequences.
“My father embodied systemic issues – racism and homophobia, among them – and we need to air them as caring human beings.”
The son said told the Mail on Sunday he blamed Al Fayed’s “chauvinist” behaviour on his generation and culture, but added: “It all became so tiresome and cliched. But what has come out now, well these are very serious allegations.”
The environmentalist also opened up about Al Fayed’s testosterone therapy used for a decreased libido and erectile dysfunction.
He said: “My mother believes that getting so much extra testosterone exacerbated already problematic tendencies with his lower libido.”
The Metropolitan Police is carrying out an internal review into how the force handled allegations about the billionaire while he was alive, with 50,000 pages of evidence being reassessed.
Despite 21 allegations of rape and sexual assault being made to police before his death, London department store owner Fayed was never charged and died without his victims getting justice.
The Met has also referred itself to the police watchdog following complaints from two women about the quality of investigations in 2008.
Commander Stephen Clayman, of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said: “We are now pursuing any individuals suspected to have been complicit in his offending.”
