Amy is one of 37 victims of Al-Fayed, including two other Canadians, who have banded together to seek accountability from the company
It seemed like a dream job: selling fashionable handbags at London’s Harrods department store and living away from her family in Peterborough, Ont., for the first time. But the job quickly turned into a nightmare and within a couple of months Amy was another victim of sexual assault at the hands of Harrods’ owner Mohamed Al-Fayed.
The Globe and Mail does not identify victims of sexual assault unless they have voluntarily identified themselves. Amy asked that only her first name be used. After two months selling handbags, she was offered a job as an assistant in Mr. Al-Fayed’s office on Park Lane. Before taking the position, the company sent her for a sexual health examination and forwarded the results to Mr. Al-Fayed. Amy said she was naive and didn’t question the test at the time. “I just thought that this was part of a screening process,” she said.
On one trip to Paris, where he owned the Ritz Hotel, Amy stayed alone with Mr. Al-Fayed at his mansion, Villa Windsor, the former home of Edward VIII and the Duchess of Windsor. Just after she went to bed, she saw the doorknob turning. “That’s when I thought, ‘here we go.’ ” She finally quit in 1996 and took up a career in teaching. She rarely spoke about what happened at Harrods and tried to move on with her life. But she still feels uncomfortable when someone touches her head the way Mr. Al-Fayed did, and she panics if she can’t see a way out of a room.
She met other victims for the first time on Friday at a press conference in London. They shared similar stories and Amy finally felt she wasn’t alone. “We’re figuring it out together,” she said.
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