The boss of Harrods has personally apologised for the first time in relation to sexual abuse allegations against the store’s late owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

The BBC approached Michael Ward at the Harrods headquarters and he said: “I am very dreadfully sorry for what has happened with Al Fayed.”

Hundreds of women have alleged the billionaire raped or sexually abused them. Police are looking into some claims and Harrods is also settling hundreds of claims.

Mr Ward, who has been managing director of Harrods since 2005, worked alongside Al Fayed until 2010 and has previously said he did not know of any abuse.

Harrods’ new owner, the Qatar Investment Authority, said an internal review was ongoing and declined to say whether it had identified or taken any action against anyone currently working there.

Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, was accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women in a BBC documentary and podcast in September.

Hundreds of people have contacted the BBC directly about Harrods and Al-Fayed since the documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods aired.

More than 70 of those were from women who sent the BBC their accounts of abuse by Al-Fayed including sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape.

Mr Ward said in a statement in September that he had stepped down from his role as a trustee of Royal Ballet and Opera while the review at Harrods takes place.

He added in the statement that he did not know of the abuse at Harrods and that Al Fayed “presided over a toxic culture of secrecy, intimidation, fear of repercussion and sexual misconduct”, calling it a “shameful period”.

He said no formal complaints had been brought to him during his time with Al Fayed, although rumours of his behaviour were in the “public domain”.

The BBC had asked Mr Ward for an interview to try and find out what was known by senior staff at Harrods of the allegations at the time but that was declined.

During the BBC’s approach at the Harrods headquarters, Mr Ward said Harrods had “nothing further to add.”

The abuse allegedly took place at Fulham FC, the Ritz Hotel Paris, Harrods, as well as other places owned by Al Fayed.

Harrods previously told the BBC that it was in the process of settling more than 250 claims for compensation brought by victims of Al Fayed. That figure has since risen to more than 290.

The luxury department store has a compensation scheme for ex-employees who say they were attacked by Al Fayed, which is separate from the legal case against it.

Al Fayed owned Harrods between 1985 and 2010. The store’s new owners have previously said they are “appalled” by the allegations of sexual abuse and have been investigating since 2023 whether any current members of staff were involved.

Lawyers for some of the victims said they were working on a claim against the Al Fayed estate, as well as Harrods, adding they expected to send hundreds more claims to the department store and that it would “snowball and snowball”.

In 2008, allegations of indecent assault against a 15-year-old girl were made against Al Fayed and it was covered in the press at the time. Al Fayed denied the claims, and the Crown Prosecution Service chose not to pursue charges due to conflicting evidence.

Last week the BBC revealed that the Met Police was told of allegations of sexual assault by Al Fayed a decade earlier than it has acknowledged

The human rights campaigner Dame Jasvinder Sanghera will meet “as many survivors as possible” and guide them through the compensation process, according to the retailer.

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