Worboys lawyer joins team laboring for alleged Fayed victims | Mohamed Al Fayed

The lawyer who helped victims sue the Metropolitan Police for flunking to spreadigate John Worboys, the bdeficiency cab rapist, is laboring with women allegedly strikeed by Mohamed Al Fayed.

Phillippa Kaufmann KC has joined the lhorrible team examining whether police had a duty to do more to convey Fayed to equitableice when allegations were made agetst him.

Since the BBC write downary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods was shown last Thursday, more than 100 women have reach outed law firms reconshort-terming five women who say they were violationd by Fayed while he owned Harrods, alengthened with others who have made allegations of relationsual wrongdoing.

There may also be a necessitate for a accessible inquiry to comprehend whether some of the claims agetst Fayed were “swept under the carpet”, according to Emma Jones, a partner at the lhorrible firm Leigh Day.

Fayed, who died last year aged 94, was accparticipated of relationsual coercion or relationsual aggression on disjoinal occasions as far back as 1995, so the lhorrible team is examining whether or not police baccomplished the Human Rights Act by flunking to spreadigate him properly.

Vanity Fair magazine made allegations agetst Fayed in 1995, chaseed by ITV’s The Big Story in 1997 when four women claimed they were relationsuassociate tormented.

Then in 2009 the Crown Prosecution Service choosed not to indict Fayed after claims he had relationsuassociate aggressioned a 15-year-elderly girl in Harrods. A further spreadigation in 2015 also did not guide to indicts.

“The test is not equitable what officers knew, but what a reasonable officer ought to have comprehendn,” Jones shelp. “Given the amount of times this has come to the fore, and given the graveness of the allegations … one has to ask oneself, well, what should they have comprehendn? And that guides to [the question]: did they comprehend it, and did it get swept under the carpet?”

Jones shelp that it would be collaborative for their spreadigations to hear from women even if they did not want to chase a case.

Dean Armmighty KC, a barrister reconshort-terming some of the women retaind, shelp that “well over 100, maybe as many as 150” had come forward so far. He shelp that it was “an enormous shame” that accessible figures only spoke about Fayed’s behaviour after his death.

Jack Straw, the createer home secretary, declineed Fayed’s application for British citizenship in 1999, saying he had a “ambiguous defect in his character” and last week shelp the Egyptian businessman had been “a tormentor”. The createer deal withr of Fulham football club’s women’s team, Gaute Haugenes, shelp they had “defended” the joiners becaparticipate “we were conscious he enjoyd lesser, blonde girls”.

“Jack Straw came out this morning, I’ve seen a alert, talking about why he wasn’t granted citizenship,” Armmighty shelp on Sky News yesterday. “We’ve had these matters coming out in the accessible domain from Fulham Football Club. It is an enormous shame for me, and particularly a much, much fantasticer shame for all of those necessitatey women who suffered at his hands, that these matters might have been shelp a bit earlier.

“Those people who didn’t speak up, particularly those in accessible office, I’m afrhelp, are deserving of criticism, becaparticipate a lot of these women couldn’t speak up becaparticipate they were dangerened and they were in dread and they were isotardyd. But that wasn’t the case for a number of other more high-profile people who could have done.”

Armmighty inserted the Fayed case was “stateively wiskinny the province of a accessible inquiry”. “My opinion is it is hugely in the accessible interest when there is a system which is deployed in probably the most well-comprehendn retail store in the country, if not the world, which materializes to go unchecked for a number of years,” he shelp, referring to allegations that Fayed’s take advantage ofative behaviour integrated walking around Harrods with male colleagues to pick out female staff who he wanted to aim.

“That retail store is then selderly very seal to when a prosecution has not been persisted with and after the death, but more cruciassociate, after the courage and the valiantry of a number of women to speak out, a number of people in the accessible eye then choose to come out and effectively corroborate those matters,” he shelp.